SW 3.102: Contributing to a new science for mountain futures

There is increasing recognition that a new type of science is required to support the sustainability transformations needed to address current environmental crises and social injustices. This is especially the case in mountain areas, which are disproportionately affected by global change, but that are also a fertile ground for innovative solutions based on unique environmental conditions, biocultural diversity, and histories of resilience. But while the growing field of sustainability sciences witnesses a boom of diverse types of inter- and transdisciplinary experiments, there is a lack of synthetic reflexive exercises across disciplines, knowledge types, and mountain contexts. In this synthesis workshop, we aim to identify and explore promising approaches from transformative research conducted in and for mountains. We invite participants from sessions across thematic fields that developed and applied innovative approaches, methodologies, and institutional processes to support sustainability transformations in diverse mountain regions. We are particularly interested in experiences that bridge knowledge systems, promoting plural perspectives and visions for mountain futures. We also welcome disruptive, experimental, and decolonial perspectives that explicitly consider power relations and question the way science is produced and reproduced. We propose to jointly reflect on barriers to sustainability transformations and how to overcome them. We wish to contribute to a new type of science that is committed to fundamentally going beyond established frameworks to support the design of innovative pathways towards more sustainable and just mountain futures.