An epistemology of transformative science and pathways towards sustainability

This article develops an epistemology of transformative science in the current context of accelerating socio-ecological crises. While sustainability discourses increasingly invoke “transformation,” mainstream scientific practices often remain grounded in an epistemology that reproduces the status quo . We argue that dominant interpretations of universality, objectivity, and neutrality function as exclusionary tropes that marginalize epistemic diversity, obscure the political entanglements of science, and privilege reductionist methodologies ill-suited to address complex socio-ecological problems. In response, we articulate an alternative epistemology of transformative science grounded in three principles: plurality, politicization, and holism. Plurality challenges the ideal of a unified science by embracing epistemic diversity and pluriversal approaches to knowledge co-production. Politicization rejects claims of value-free neutrality and foregrounds the power relations embedded in scientific institutions and sustainability governance. Holism counters reductionism by emphasizing interconnectedness, relationality, and systems thinking, including more-than-human relations central to many Indigenous worldviews. We articulate this framework through three complementary pathways: complexity-oriented science, participation-oriented science, and education-oriented science. Together, these pathways illustrate how epistemological reorientation can reshape the interface of science and society. Transformative science, we conclude, requires not only generating knowledge for sustainability transitions but reflexively transforming the epistemic foundations of scientific practice itself.