1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville · Marx · Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto · Tönnies · Veblen · Simmel · Durkheim · Addams · Mead · Weber · Du Bois · Mannheim · Elias In sociology, societal transformation refers to “a deep and sustained, nonlinear systemic change” [1] in a society.
The concept of societal transformations have for some time been used in academic disciplines such as political economy,[3] development economics,[4][5] history[6] or anthropology.
[7] Since 2010, the concept has been increasingly used in policy-making, research and media to point out that small adjustments of present habits, technologies and policies does not suffice to meet the environmental, climate and sustainable development goals.
[8][9][10][11][12] The Decision of the United Nations 2030 Agenda outlining the Sustainable Development Goals bears the heading “transforming our world”.
[13] Similarly, the 2019 global assessment report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) concludes that transformative changes in society are crucial for nature protection.