Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part I. Making sense of transformations -- 1. How do we change the world? -- The call for transformation -- Transitions and transformations -- Exploring transformations -- Research on and for sustainability transformations -- 2. Sense-making analysis -- A dialogical approach to sense-making -- Sense-making in action: narrative, framing, categorisation, and metaphor -- Narratives -- Frames and framing -- Categorisation: analogies and distinctions -- Metaphors -- Sites for sense-making on societal transformations -- Empirical foundations of the study -- Peer-reviewed research literature -- Policy documents -- International media -- Lay sense-making -- Variations and commonalities in sense-making on sustainability transformations -- Rationale for the selection of empirical data and case studies -- 3. How societies change: theories of transformation -- Historical transformations -- Collapse or amalgamation -- Scale -- Drivers of change -- Scope: mega and particular transformations; Periodisations -- The industrial revolution -- Modernity -- The self-regulating market -- A fourth industrial revolution or second modernity? -- Automobilisation -- Abolition of slavery -- The unending struggle for emancipation -- The abolition of slavery as analogous to societal transformations towards sustainability -- Implications for sustainability transformations -- Part II. Varieties of transformations to sustainability -- 4. Global arenas of transformations -- Societal transformations in the research literature -- Societal transformations in international news media -- Transformation scale, scope, and approaches -- Transformation goals -- Actors and drivers of change -- Transformations aspirations in global sustainability governance -- The transformative 2030 agenda -- The Paris agreement -- Transformation scale, scope, and approaches -- Transformation goals -- Agents and drivers of change -- Implications for sustainability transformations -- 5. Localising transformations -- Cabo Verde: the bridge builder -- Cabo Verde focus groups -- Varieties of transformation in Cabo Verdo -- Guangzhou, Pearl River Delta, China: a Chinese model -- Guangzhou focus groups -- Varieties of transformation in Guangzhou, China -- Fiji: leadership of the vulnerable -- Fiji focus groups -- Varieties of transformation in Fiji -- Sweden: towards a fossil free welfare state -- Swedish focus groups -- Varieties of transformation in Sweden -- Boulder, Colorado, USA: A US frontrunner -- Boulder focus groups -- Varieties of transformation in Boulder, Colorado, USA -- Implications for sustainability transformations -- 6. Transformation narratives -- Transformation as a journey -- Transformation as a building process -- Transformation as a war -- Transformation as Co-creation -- Transformation as recuperation -- Implications for sustainability transformations -- Part III. Manoeuvring in a multi-transformational world -- 7. Governing transformations -- Guiding change -- What transformation is being governed? -- Understanding the target system -- Understanding the depth of transformation -- Intended outcomes of transformation -- What factors enable and restrict transformation? -- Critical conditions -- Just transformations -- Incremental change vs. disruptive innovation -- Niche development vs. integrated approaches -- Mechanisms of governance -- Changing the way we change -- What roles do different actors play? -- Key actors in transformations -- Narratives of transformation pathways -- Interventions: co-creation, transformative capacity, and social innovations -- Agency and social structure -- Implications for sustainability transformations -- 8. Our transforming world -- The governability of transformations -- The system boundaries of transformations -- The pace of transformations -- Drivers of change -- Technology -- Political economy -- Transformative learning -- Narratives -- Perspective change -- Dialogues -- Transformation as utopian thought -- Never-ending stories of transformation

A comparison of how societal actors in different geographical, political and cultural contexts understand agents and drivers of sustainability transformations.