Sander Van Der Leeuw
Biographic Data
| ID | 382779 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sander Van Der Leeuw |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sander |
| FAMILY NAME | Van Der Leeuw |
| SIGNATURE | VAN DER LEEUW S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Arizona State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6997-4629 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1400 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 39 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Society Building as Collaborative Selection of Information-Processing Dimensions
The perspective we are developing here is that all human societal and environmental interaction is shaped by the information-processing structures of the societies concerned. Its point of departure is an attempt to look in detail at the collaborative process by which societies’ collective information-processing structures (comprising beliefs, institutions, technologies, etc.) are developed and the members of the society are aligned to it. We see …
The Infuriated Loop
International audience
The Illusion of Control
Why are societies (partly) adopting the scientific, Western intellectual perspective so little inclined to accept that their vision of the world is much more uncertain than they assume? This paper views the illusion of control as the result of a long-term coevolution in which, in Euro-American society, the basic categories of thinking have shifted from “open” to “closed,” from a focus on exploration of the unknown to the exploitation of the known…
The Illusion of Control
This is an introduction for the special collection on “Illusion of Control”
All options, not silver bullets, needed to limit global warming to 1.5 °C
Climate science provides strong evidence of the necessity of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C, in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. The IPCC 1.5 °C special report (SR1.5) presents 414 emissions scenarios modelled for the report, of which around 50 are classified as ‘1.5 °C scenarios’, with no or low temperature overshoot. These emission scenarios differ in their reliance on individual mitigation levers, including reduction of global energy …
The social dynamics of basins of attraction
In this paper we conceptualize transformations as societal shifts from one basin of attraction to another. Such shifts occur when a society's information processing system is no longer fit to deal with the dynamics with which the society is involved. To understand when this might be the case, we conceive of a dynamic interaction between two domains, the cognitive one (containing a society's knowledge, values, language, customs, technology etc. th…
Co-designing global target-seeking scenarios
The United Nations 2030 Agenda catalysed the development of global target-seeking sustainability-oriented scenarios representing alternative pathways to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Implementing the SDGs requires connected actions across local, national, regional, and global levels; thus, target-seeking scenarios need to reflect alternative options and tensions across those scales. We argue that the design of global sustainabil…
Social Sustainability, Past and Future
In this book, Sander Van der Leeuw examines how the modern world has been caught in a socio-economic dynamic that has generated the conundrum of sustainability. Combining the methods of social science and complex systems science, he explores how western, developed nations have globalized their world view and how that view has led to the sustainability challenges we are now facing. Its central theme is the co-evolution of cognition, demography, so…
Closing remarks
This paper summarizes some personal impressions of the 7th conference of the International Complex Systems Society, co-organized with "Future Earth", held in Stockholm on August 24-26, 2017. The main point is that it is urgent and important to consider the sustainability conundrum as long-term, society-driven one, and to place societal dynamics at the core of how we, as a global society, came to this point, how ongoing dynamics are driving us tow…
La science, les politiques et le public
Il s'agit ici de regarder les sciences dans une perspective ethnographique, en soulignant que la cration des rsultats scientifiques et leur valuation par le public sont sociales et s'inscrivent dans des processus contextuels. La perte de la crdibilit scientifique au sein d'un large public, aux tats-Unis en particulier, semble due au fait qu'aprs la Seconde Guerre mondiale, les sciences ont cr un niveau d'attente irraliste et ont eu des consquence…
The Extension of Social Relations in Time and Space during the Palaeolithic and beyond
A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Sustainability science in action
Dossier
This study examines how social and natural scientists converged on a new ontological approach to science. Three distinguishing features comprise this new approach. They include: (1) an integration of the social and ecological into a fully coupled social-ecological systems perspective, (2) a holistic view of scientific phenomena requiring a transdisciplinary approach to its study, and (3) the refutation of a purely equilibrium-based understanding …
Plausible and desirable futures in the Anthropocene
While the concept of the Anthropocene reflects the past and present nature, scale and magnitude of human impacts on the Earth System, its true significance lies in how it can be used to guide attitudes, choices, policies and actions that influence the future. Yet, to date much of the research on the Anthropocene has focused on interpreting past and present changes, while saying little about the future. Likewise, many futures studies have been ins…
Methods and approaches to modelling the Anthropocene
The ‘Anthropocene’ concept provides a conceptual framework that encapsulates the current global situation in which society has an ever-greater dominating influence on Earth System functioning. Simulation models used to understand earth system dynamics provide early warning, scenario analysis and evaluation of environmental management and policies. This paper aims to assess the extent to which current models represent the Anthropocene and suggest …
Analysis, Integration and Modeling of the Earth System (Aimes)
The IGBP Analysis, Integration and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES) project has developed the notion of Earth System Science (ESS). ESS studies how the planet operates as a coupled system of interacting components, which produce emergent behaviors over and beyond the dynamics of the individual components. Many climate models used in the IPCC's 5th Assessment Report (AR5) include representations of the physical climate system and the biologica…
Integrating problem- and project-based learning into sustainability programs
Purpose – The article aims to describe the problem- and project-based learning (PPBL) program and the institutional context at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability (SOS), with the goal of offering experience-based guidance for similar initiatives in sustainability programs around the world. Design/methodology/approach – This case study presents the diverse PPBL activities that SOS offers on the undergraduate and the graduate levels…
A developmental approach to ancient innovation
In this paper, we view creativity through the lens of innovation, a concept familiar to archaeologists across a range of contexts and theoretical perspectives. Most attempts to understand ancient innovation thus far, we argue, have been limited by their lack of capacity to cope with the multiple scales of innovation: Those that track widespread changes, like the beginnings of metallurgy, fail to account for the changes experiences by individual c…
Un habitat perché et fortifié du Ve s. av. n. è. sur le mont Peigros, Sainte-Maxime (Var)
Au cours d’un siècle, le Ve av. n.è., qui voit les échanges économiques profondément modifiés par le commerce maritime et par l’activité économique des colons grecs de Marseille, l’habitat perché fortifié du Peigros témoigne, par son mobilier, de la persistance d’un mode de vie indigène, fondé sur des activités agro-pastorales, et peu tourné vers les échanges extérieurs. Édifié sur le sommet culminant des Maures orientales, il fait partie des sit…
Giving the Potter a Choice
Nanotechnology in the City
Visions about the use of nanotechnologies in the city, including in the design and construction of built environments, suggest that these technologies could be critically important for solving urban sustainability problems. We argue that such visions often overlook two critical and interrelated elements. First, conjectures about future nano-enhanced cities tend to rely on flawed concepts of urban sustainability that underestimate the challenges p…
Developing an Integrated History and future of People on Earth (Ihope)
How much time do we have? Urgency and rhetoric in sustainability science
For every solution there are many problems
This paper uses a case study on the evolution of the Rhine river delta to illustrate the coevolution of the environment, the technology used to exploit it, and the institutions governing it. Three strands are interwoven: (1) Achieving equilibrium between protecting and utilizing land is difficult. In this area, as a result of exploitation, agriculture on fertile peat is succeeded by stock raising on infertile peat, peat extraction, inundation, an…
Tipping Toward Sustainability
Planetary Boundaries
Rockström, J., W. Steffen, K. Noone, Å. Persson, F. S. Chapin, III, E. Lambin, T. M. Lenton, M. Scheffer, C. Folke, H. Schellnhuber, B. Nykvist, C. A. De Wit, T. Hughes, S. van der Leeuw, H. Rodhe, S. Sörlin, P. K. Snyder, R. Costanza, U. Svedin, M. Falkenmark, L. Karlberg, R. W. Corell, V. J. Fabry, J. Hansen, B. Walker, D. Liverman, K. Richardson, P. Crutzen, and J. Foley. 2009. Planetary boundaries:exploring the safe operating space for humani…
Resilience and Vulnerability
Miller, F., H. Osbahr, E. Boyd, F. Thomalla, S. Bharwani, G. Ziervogel, B. Walker, J. Birkmann, S. Van der Leeuw, J. Rockström, J. Hinkel, T. Downing, C. Folke, and D. Nelson 2010. Resilience and vulnerability: complementary or conflicting concepts?. Ecology and Society 15(3): 11. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03378-150311
The globalization of socio-ecological systems
Placing Archaeology at the Center of Socio-Natural Studies
Changing patterns of university and government research and training in this country and abroad force us, as archaeologists, to regularly reevaluate our disciplinary methods and goals. In the absence of careful consideration of these issues, the relative prominence of archaeology may stagnate or even diminish. From our own experience directing large multidisciplinary research projects, we believe that one particularly productive avenue for future…
Plausible and desirable futures in the Anthropocene
While the concept of the Anthropocene reflects the past and present nature, scale and magnitude of human impacts on the Earth System, its true significance lies in how it can be used to guide attitudes, choices, policies and actions that influence the future. Yet, to date much of the research on the Anthropocene has focused on interpreting past and present changes, while saying little about the future. Likewise, many futures studies have been ins…
Methods and approaches to modelling the Anthropocene
The ‘Anthropocene’ concept provides a conceptual framework that encapsulates the current global situation in which society has an ever-greater dominating influence on Earth System functioning. Simulation models used to understand earth system dynamics provide early warning, scenario analysis and evaluation of environmental management and policies. This paper aims to assess the extent to which current models represent the Anthropocene and suggest …
Tipping Toward Sustainability
Developing an Integrated History and future of People on Earth (Ihope)
Complex Land Systems
Dearing, J. A., A. K. Braimoh, A. Reenberg, B. L. Turner, and S. van der Leeuw. 2010. Complex land systems: the need for long time perspectives to assess their future. Ecology and Society 15(4): 21. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03645-150421
Co-designing global target-seeking scenarios
The United Nations 2030 Agenda catalysed the development of global target-seeking sustainability-oriented scenarios representing alternative pathways to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Implementing the SDGs requires connected actions across local, national, regional, and global levels; thus, target-seeking scenarios need to reflect alternative options and tensions across those scales. We argue that the design of global sustainabil…
Developing a systematic “science of the past” to create our future
Toward an Integrated History to Guide the Future
Van der Leeuw, S., R. Costanza, S. Aulenbach, S. Brewer, M. Burek, S. Cornell, C. Crumley, J. A. Dearing, C. Downy, L. J. Graumlich, S. Heckbert, M. Hegmon, K. Hibbard, S. T. Jackson, I. Kubiszewski, P. Sinclair, S. Sörlin, and W. Steffen. 2011. Toward an integrated history to guide the future. Ecology and Society 16(4): 2. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-04341-160402
Analysis, Integration and Modeling of the Earth System (Aimes)
The IGBP Analysis, Integration and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES) project has developed the notion of Earth System Science (ESS). ESS studies how the planet operates as a coupled system of interacting components, which produce emergent behaviors over and beyond the dynamics of the individual components. Many climate models used in the IPCC's 5th Assessment Report (AR5) include representations of the physical climate system and the biologica…
New Approaches to a collective grave from the Umm An-Nar Period at Hili (UAE)
In the Oman peninsula, the Umm an-Nar circular tombs, easily seen in the landscape because of their monumental architecture, have usually been robbed for building stones and for their objects. This was not the case for a pit-grave discovered at Hili (United Arab Emirates) in 1984, which presented a stratigraphy nearly 2 meters deep, with 4 phases of main funeraiy deposits dating to the end of the Umm an-Nar period (ca 2 200-2 000 ВС). Such a stra…
Analyse technologique et expérimentations
Les premiers résultats de l’étude technologique et expérimentale d’un assemblage céramique de la fin de l’âge du bronze ancien mettent en évidence la variété des méthodes techniques et des chaînes opératoires en usage à la fin du IIIe millénaire en Arabie orientale. La pratique du colombin tourné, sur base tournée ou non, était maîtrisée par les potiers de cette région mais pas le tournage en une seule pièce, cette technique étant en revanche att…
How much time do we have? Urgency and rhetoric in sustainability science
For every solution there are many problems
This paper uses a case study on the evolution of the Rhine river delta to illustrate the coevolution of the environment, the technology used to exploit it, and the institutions governing it. Three strands are interwoven: (1) Achieving equilibrium between protecting and utilizing land is difficult. In this area, as a result of exploitation, agriculture on fertile peat is succeeded by stock raising on infertile peat, peat extraction, inundation, an…
The social dynamics of basins of attraction
In this paper we conceptualize transformations as societal shifts from one basin of attraction to another. Such shifts occur when a society's information processing system is no longer fit to deal with the dynamics with which the society is involved. To understand when this might be the case, we conceive of a dynamic interaction between two domains, the cognitive one (containing a society's knowledge, values, language, customs, technology etc. th…
Closing remarks
This paper summarizes some personal impressions of the 7th conference of the International Complex Systems Society, co-organized with "Future Earth", held in Stockholm on August 24-26, 2017. The main point is that it is urgent and important to consider the sustainability conundrum as long-term, society-driven one, and to place societal dynamics at the core of how we, as a global society, came to this point, how ongoing dynamics are driving us tow…
Social and Environmental Change
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Illusion of Control
This is an introduction for the special collection on “Illusion of Control”
Social and Environmental Change
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Roman Frontier Studies
Archaeomedes, la dynamique spatio-temporelle de l'habitat antique dans la vallée du Rhône
Within the framework of the European programme Archaeomedes, a study of the evolution of the population in the Western Languedoc from the Roman conquest till today was done. During antiquity and the Middle-Ages, stages of settlement spreading are followed by restructuring and concentrations linked to historical constraint rather than to environment: settlement networks around country-towns having an economic, social, political and ideological rol…
Placing Archaeology at the Center of Socio-Natural Studies
Changing patterns of university and government research and training in this country and abroad force us, as archaeologists, to regularly reevaluate our disciplinary methods and goals. In the absence of careful consideration of these issues, the relative prominence of archaeology may stagnate or even diminish. From our own experience directing large multidisciplinary research projects, we believe that one particularly productive avenue for future…
New Approaches to a collective grave from the Umm An-Nar Period at Hili (UAE)
In the Oman peninsula, the Umm an-Nar circular tombs, easily seen in the landscape because of their monumental architecture, have usually been robbed for building stones and for their objects. This was not the case for a pit-grave discovered at Hili (United Arab Emirates) in 1984, which presented a stratigraphy nearly 2 meters deep, with 4 phases of main funeraiy deposits dating to the end of the Umm an-Nar period (ca 2 200-2 000 ВС). Such a stra…
The globalization of socio-ecological systems
A safe operating space for humanity
An Agent-Based Model of Information Flows in Social Dynamics
Planetary Boundaries
Rockström, J., W. Steffen, K. Noone, Å. Persson, F. S. Chapin, III, E. Lambin, T. M. Lenton, M. Scheffer, C. Folke, H. Schellnhuber, B. Nykvist, C. A. De Wit, T. Hughes, S. van der Leeuw, H. Rodhe, S. Sörlin, P. K. Snyder, R. Costanza, U. Svedin, M. Falkenmark, L. Karlberg, R. W. Corell, V. J. Fabry, J. Hansen, B. Walker, D. Liverman, K. Richardson, P. Crutzen, and J. Foley. 2009. Planetary boundaries:exploring the safe operating space for humani…
Developing a systematic “science of the past” to create our future
Analyse technologique et expérimentations
Les premiers résultats de l’étude technologique et expérimentale d’un assemblage céramique de la fin de l’âge du bronze ancien mettent en évidence la variété des méthodes techniques et des chaînes opératoires en usage à la fin du IIIe millénaire en Arabie orientale. La pratique du colombin tourné, sur base tournée ou non, était maîtrisée par les potiers de cette région mais pas le tournage en une seule pièce, cette technique étant en revanche att…
Complex Land Systems
Dearing, J. A., A. K. Braimoh, A. Reenberg, B. L. Turner, and S. van der Leeuw. 2010. Complex land systems: the need for long time perspectives to assess their future. Ecology and Society 15(4): 21. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03645-150421
Resilience and Vulnerability
Miller, F., H. Osbahr, E. Boyd, F. Thomalla, S. Bharwani, G. Ziervogel, B. Walker, J. Birkmann, S. Van der Leeuw, J. Rockström, J. Hinkel, T. Downing, C. Folke, and D. Nelson 2010. Resilience and vulnerability: complementary or conflicting concepts?. Ecology and Society 15(3): 11. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03378-150311
Tipping Toward Sustainability
Toward an Integrated History to Guide the Future
Van der Leeuw, S., R. Costanza, S. Aulenbach, S. Brewer, M. Burek, S. Cornell, C. Crumley, J. A. Dearing, C. Downy, L. J. Graumlich, S. Heckbert, M. Hegmon, K. Hibbard, S. T. Jackson, I. Kubiszewski, P. Sinclair, S. Sörlin, and W. Steffen. 2011. Toward an integrated history to guide the future. Ecology and Society 16(4): 2. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-04341-160402
Developing an Integrated History and future of People on Earth (Ihope)
How much time do we have? Urgency and rhetoric in sustainability science
For every solution there are many problems
This paper uses a case study on the evolution of the Rhine river delta to illustrate the coevolution of the environment, the technology used to exploit it, and the institutions governing it. Three strands are interwoven: (1) Achieving equilibrium between protecting and utilizing land is difficult. In this area, as a result of exploitation, agriculture on fertile peat is succeeded by stock raising on infertile peat, peat extraction, inundation, an…
Giving the Potter a Choice
Nanotechnology in the City
Visions about the use of nanotechnologies in the city, including in the design and construction of built environments, suggest that these technologies could be critically important for solving urban sustainability problems. We argue that such visions often overlook two critical and interrelated elements. First, conjectures about future nano-enhanced cities tend to rely on flawed concepts of urban sustainability that underestimate the challenges p…
Integrating problem- and project-based learning into sustainability programs
Purpose – The article aims to describe the problem- and project-based learning (PPBL) program and the institutional context at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability (SOS), with the goal of offering experience-based guidance for similar initiatives in sustainability programs around the world. Design/methodology/approach – This case study presents the diverse PPBL activities that SOS offers on the undergraduate and the graduate levels…
A developmental approach to ancient innovation
In this paper, we view creativity through the lens of innovation, a concept familiar to archaeologists across a range of contexts and theoretical perspectives. Most attempts to understand ancient innovation thus far, we argue, have been limited by their lack of capacity to cope with the multiple scales of innovation: Those that track widespread changes, like the beginnings of metallurgy, fail to account for the changes experiences by individual c…
Un habitat perché et fortifié du Ve s. av. n. è. sur le mont Peigros, Sainte-Maxime (Var)
Au cours d’un siècle, le Ve av. n.è., qui voit les échanges économiques profondément modifiés par le commerce maritime et par l’activité économique des colons grecs de Marseille, l’habitat perché fortifié du Peigros témoigne, par son mobilier, de la persistance d’un mode de vie indigène, fondé sur des activités agro-pastorales, et peu tourné vers les échanges extérieurs. Édifié sur le sommet culminant des Maures orientales, il fait partie des sit…
The Extension of Social Relations in Time and Space during the Palaeolithic and beyond
A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Sustainability science in action
Computer Science (18 works) · Ecology (15 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Geography (13 works) · Political science (12 works) · Sustainability (10 works) · Economics (9 works) · Business (8 works) · Biology (7 works) · Engineering (7 works)