I am particularly interested in how societies both create and respond to change. I am Chair of the Global Environmental Change and Human Security (GECHS) project of IHDP, and I lead the PLAN project on Responding to Climate Change: The Potentials of and Limits to Adaptation in Norway, which is a social-science based project that examines climate change adaptation as a social process.
My research focuses on how integral theory and integral approaches to sustainability can contribute to a better understanding of both the problems and solutions associated with climate change. I explore the ways that environmental changes interact with other global processes to influence equity, resilience and sustainability, and how interacting processes can be used to create positive transformations, including sustainable adaptation. I am also interested in how values, beliefs and worldviews influence the capacity to respond to change, and what this means for individuals and communities faced with complex and interacting changes. Overall, my research emphasizes the need to frame environmental issues in a much broader context, i.e., to consider them as social, developmental and ethical issues that have implications for human security and well-being.