The New Frontiers Exploration Grant was awarded to the Beyond Sustainability international project team on April 1, 2020 – two weeks after the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Imagine: A project consisting of an international transdisciplinary team established to research new ways of thinking about how humans interact with non-humans and the natural environment (and how to transform that relationship through system thinking in order to go beyond sustainability) without being able to interact in person or spend time directly in the field. Even worse, the project was also intended to include meaningful interactions with local people, involving youth, community members and other researchers, and between the research team itself. The implications are many, with the most notable being that “the human brain is the result of tens of thousands of years of evolution, while technology is rapidly evolving, the brain, is configured to manage interactions and communications with others face to face”.1
Why does it matter whether communication between people is less effective when it’s done through technology as opposed to in person? In the context of the Beyond sustainability: radical transformation through system thinking research project, this disparity in communication methods is not merely a matter of preference; it carries profound implications, particularly regarding its collaborative ventures.
Communication researchers tend to agree that all forms of digital and virtual communication can “replace” an in-person, face-to-face experience2. With face-to-face communication, however, is still considered to be the ‘the gold standard’3. Face-to-face communication surpasses all other communications methods in its ability to inspire and mobilize people. Before a single word is spoken, it allows for the full conveyance of not just verbal content, but also the nuanced messages of tone, voice modulation, emotion and body language. Directly addressing individuals, making eye contact and delivering precise information serves as an effective means to underscore and reinforce key points.
The first year of the project meant engaging only in a virtual way with very little interaction with the public. Meetings with the team became more complicated with schedule restrictions due to time zones and other obligations. It was also clear that activities on the computer, such as email., for example, caused distractions during virtual meetings. The virtual community cafes that the team hosted did not draw in a large crowd of people, especially at the beginning of the second year of the project. It seemed that people’s calendars were becoming overly saturated with virtual, screen-based events that were used as a medium to talk to and learn from others.
Videoconferencing can also hamper creativity4. It limits cognitive concentration because participant focus is often concentrated on verbal content and all that is happening on the screen, and in the backgrounds, rather than on the key nuances of communication (body language, tone, emotion, etc3,4).
The Beyond Sustainability project was initially meant to engage the broader public through activities such as proactive camps, conversation circles, community cafés and artistic events. The pandemic brought new risks to public health involved with in person interaction that were not predetermined during the preparation of the project. Best efforts were made, however, to engage with the public virtually through a host of on-line events that were held.
To ensure participation and co-creation of knowledge with youth, community members, private sector, governmental officials and Indigenous partners, the Beyond Sustainability project established a Clubhouse meeting room. Clubhouse is an audio-based social media app that allows people from around the world to engage in live conversations. The Beyond Sustainability Team ran weekly conversations on a specific topic each week from August 2021 until April 2023. It had a huge advantage: the team reached over 500 people worldwide, in countries that would not have been reached in any other way. In this regard, it was very successful with higher impact than what would have been achieved by remaining solely at the local level.
Empowering the next generation of researchers was an important goal of the Beyond Sustainability project. The formation of the Young Professionals in research Exploration Group served as a testament to this commitment, providing a platform for students to dive deeper into discussions on radical transformations and the future of sustainability. The work of the group culminated in an artistic event in the third year of the project: Transforming Environmental Awareness with Artistic Interventions: a showcase of video art, fiber art, and a live performance. The event offered an alternative way to build environmental awareness through sustainability discourse rethinking and showcased the out-of-the-box thinking required to transform our currently unsustainable social-ecological systems.
The project drew to a close in the form of a Think Tank, where a group of “system thinking” researchers (three from the original project team and three new thinkers) met in person at Brock University to chart a new course of moving beyond sustainability. The work of the Think Tank was motivated by the alarming reality that society has surpassed the boundaries of the traditional “sustainability” model, symbolized by the three-legged stool. This model has been made obsolete by an economic system driven by profit and power, disregarding the well-being of both humanity and the planet. The Think Tank research team understands that as society navigates this chaotic phase, it presents opportunities to instigate paradigm shifts and enact transformative change, paving the way towards a future that is secure and equitable for all.
The timing of a global pandemic, which led to a worldwide surge in outdoor activities, coinciding with the work of the Beyond Sustainability research team as they embarked on a journey to redefine humanity’s relationship with the environment was indeed interesting. Did it change the relationship between nature and humans? That’s difficult to know. What we do know is changing mindsets and bringing more awareness can create a new path for humans and the planet. Alone, nobody can change the world, but small groups of people working together can change part of it. Over time, these small changes can create radical transformation, and the world is forever changed, for the better.
- Schwartz, L., Levy, J., Endevelt-Shapira, Y., Djalovski, A., Hayut, O., Dumas, G., & Feldman, R. (2022). Technologically-assisted communication attenuates inter-brain synchrony. doi:10.1101/2022.06.06.494185
- Walther, J. B. Theories of computer-mediated communication and interpersonal relations. In Sage Handbook of Interpersonal Communication (eds. Knapp, M. L. & Daly, J. A.) (Sage, 2011).
- Stieger, S., Lewetz, D., & Willinger, D. (2023). Face-to-face more important than digital communication for mental health during the pandemic. Scientific Reports, 13(1). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-34957-4#ref-CR11
- Brucks, M. S., & Levav, J. (2022). Virtual communication curbs creative idea generation. Nature, 605(7908), 108-112. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04643-y
