Socioecological metabolism: investigating sustainability across scales

Sustainability challenges are related to socioecological interactions occurring on various spatial and temporal scales. Processes on different scales are linked, hence place- or site-based research – such as many LT(S)ER approaches – needs embedding in larger, often global contexts. This is even more relevant today, as rising geopolitical tensions, international conflicts and wars, pandemics and increasingly frequent and severe impacts of climate heating drive the world towards a multipolar ‘divided world’ scenario. Socioecological metabolism (SEM) is an increasingly widespread and powerful approach to study societies’ material basis. SEM is focused on societies’ use of biophysical resources (materials, energy or land) in production and consumption processes that underly delivery of services essential for social wellbeing (e.g., shelter, nutrition, mobility, education, healthcare, hygiene and many more). In the process, societies accumulate ‘material stocks’ in buildings, infrastructures, machinery or other artefacts, in addition to the bodies of humans and livestock belonging to any specific society. Delivery of services requires specific combinations of material stocks and energy or material flows (the ‘stock-flow-service nexus’). At the same time, patterns of societal material stocks shape practices of dwelling, being mobile, nourishing oneself and so on that are intimately interrelated with patterns and levels of resource use, thereby shaping (un)sustainability (the ‘stock-flow-practice nexus’). SEM is directly and indirectly related to ecological impacts at all stages, from extraction to accumulation of stocks and outflows of wastes and emissions. For example, biomass extraction affects roughly three quarters of the earth’s lands (except Antarctica and Greenland), thereby contributing to the global land squeeze and to pressures on biodiversity. Built structures (buildings and infrastructures), while occupying a relatively small proportion of earth’s land surface, structure landscapes and have far-reaching ecological consequences, e.g. by restricting movement of species or opening pristine regions for development. Outflows of wastes and emissions, among others, drive global heating, which again affects ecosystems across all scales. In this presentation, I will review the current state-of-the-art in terms of quantifying and modelling socioecological metabolism and studying its relations with societies and their economies. In addition to highlighting some current highly granular (up to 10m spatial resolution nation-wide, 90m global) and long-term (>100 years) quantifications of stocks and flows in SEM, I will discuss current progress in linking SEM data with social wellbeing and achievement of decent living standards. I will also provide an outlook to ongoing research aiming at a better understanding of the effects of disruptions on SEM and its wellbeing contributions. Given that current SEM methods are only descriptive, static or at best represent linear dynamics, this will involve integration with models from complexity science that can grasp the non-linear dynamics of networked systems (tipping points, phase transitions, etc.). Efforts are also under way to harness the power of the emerging highly granular SEM data and models for transformative research by linking them with actors, institutions and power relations to investigate the malleability of social metabolism. This recent and ongoing research aims to provide a robust basis for integrating social sciences and natural sciences when studying the sustainability of globally embedded socio-ecological systems. The SEM approach hence can crucially contribute to integrating local, actor-centered and participatory research into larger-scale models and assessments.