A New Home for SES Research and Practice

The Social-Ecological Systems Society (SocSES) is thrilled to announce its official launch! SocSES is a global community dedicated to advancing social-ecological systems (SES) research, collaboration, and action to foster a just and sustainable future. Led by the Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) and the Resilience Alliance (RA), along with other partners, the society aims to provide an intellectual home and a thriving collaborative space for SES scholars and practitioners working at the science-practice interface.

Why Now? A Turning Point for SES Research

Over the past few decades, social-ecological systems research has reshaped how we understand and engage with the complexity of the world, developing an integrated science that recognizes the deep interconnections between people, ecosystems, and institutions. As humanity faces accelerating climate disruptions, biodiversity loss, and widening social inequalities, an SES approach has become essential – not only for understanding these crises, but for driving the transformative change needed to secure a just and sustainable future.

SES research has flourished across different networks, institutions, and initiatives, but the field has lacked a unified institutional structure to connect its diverse community, consolidate efforts, and strengthen its voice in policy and practice. SocSES fills this gap by providing a stable and structured space for collaboration, synthesis, and impact-driven knowledge co-production.

Our vision is to support interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, foster networking among SES scholars and practitioners, provide training and mentorship for emerging professionals, and advocate for a stronger voice for SES approaches in decision-making and policy processes. By joining forces, we can amplify SES research and practice to address the world’s most pressing environmental and social challenges at multiple scales.

Our community of communities

SocSES brings together a broad and diverse network of individuals and institutions doing SES research and working at the interface of science, policy, and practice. Our society is structured around five key communities, consisting of Thematic Streams, Regional Hubs, an Institutional Hub, Task Forces and an Early Careers Hub, which are the heartbeat of SocSES. 

• Thematic Streams provide spaces for advancing grouped themes or topical areas of SES research and practice. Each stream is facilitated by multiple working groups looking to advance key SES topics, such as collaborative governance, pathways to transformative futures, placed-based transdisciplinary research, SES methods, and modelling, resilience theory and nature-based transformations. 
• The Early Careers Hub is a dedicated space run by early-career professionals for early-career researchers, thus ensuring that emerging SES scholars and practitioners have a strong voice in shaping the future of the field. It provides mentorship, training, and networking opportunities, equipping early-career members with the skills and connections needed to navigate interdisciplinary SES work.. You can learn more about the Early Careers Hub and join their launch here.
• Regional Hubs provide spaces for SES researchers, practitioners, and institutions to collaborate within specific geographical regions. Because they focus on regionally relevant issues, these hubs create opportunities for local knowledge systems and regional perspectives to be more fully recognized, integrated, and applied in SES research and practice. They also provide a platform for addressing region-specific challenges and leveraging unique regional opportunities, ensuring that place-based knowledge informs both local action and broader global SES discussions.
• The Institutional Hub, composed of representatives from institutional members, provides a collaborative space for research centres, universities, NGOs, and other organizations engaged in SES work. It facilitates partnerships between institutes, resource-sharing, and the exchange of insights on training programs, institutional structures, and challenges unique to SES research and practice. Beyond fostering collaboration, the hub will also lead strategic initiatives to strengthen SES research within institutions and advance the science underpinning these efforts.
• Task Teams are groups that focus on specific strategic priorities within the society. In this founding phase, a primary role for task forces will be to help shape the governance and structure of the society, ensuring that SocSES is co-produced with its many communities and partner networks. Drawn from members across the society, these groups will play a critical role in defining key processes, priorities, and engagement mechanisms. Task Teams will be launched a little later in the year. 

A warm welcome to your community!

This is not just an invitation to join a society – it is also a call to help shape the future of the SES field and position it as a more powerful force across interconnected scales, thus ensuring that SES approaches are not only strengthened but actively embedded in the transformative change processes the world urgently needs.

SocSES is built as an inclusive space, welcoming diverse voices, perspectives, and ways of knowing. Whether through Thematic Streams, Regional Hubs, the Institutional Hub, Task Forces, or the Early Careers Hub, there are many ways to contribute and be part of this collective effort.

The strength of SocSES ultimately lies in the diversity, expertise, and commitment of its members. We encourage you to engage, collaborate, and co-create a society that truly serves the SES field – and the world- in this critical moment. Welcome to SocSES!