Action and agency are required throughout societies to carry out the needed sustainability transformation. Scientific societies have been identified as one group of actors that could be more active in leading the transformation. But are scientific societies – and their members – ready to take up this role?
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cientific societies are organized, registered associations that aim to promote research and bring together researchers in their respective fields. However, researchers are constantly short on time, which does not encourage participation in scientific societies’ activities. In addition, while the societies may be prepared to have a say in science policy, their role remains less impactful in other pressing societal matters. We claim that by clarifying their role and values and becoming active agents for sustainability transformation, scientific societies could become significant actors and manage to attract more researchers to their ranks.
In the broad field of sustainability research, a relevant society is the Finnish Society for Environmental Social Science (YHYS). The annual colloquiums of the society bring together environmental social scientists and provide a platform for discussing timely topics. The 30th YHYS colloquium was held at the LUT University, Lappeenranta campus, in November 2024, with the theme ”The Anthropocene: Action and agency for preventing collapse”. As part of the program, a session titled “Scientific societies as actors in transformative change” was organized. We had lively discussions between the participants and decided to take the conversation further by co-authoring this text.
A growing concern in the scientific community
The session at the YHYS colloquium was convened from two starting points. The ANdiNA VI network, a diverse group of scientists from 15 countries, is concerned with the current global environmental crisis. The group got together in early 2024 to address the urgent need to reflect on, and identify, the core values and responsibilities of individual professionals and academic societies. Anni Arponen introduced the statement on the values and responsibilities of ecologists and environmental scientists, which the group produced.
Another starting point was a concern for the future of scientific societies, especially in the Finnish context. The societies are generally struggling to find new active members, as academic voluntary work is not considered a merit in the current university career system. For instance, while YHYS keeps attracting new members, the Finnish Society for Regional and Environmental Studies (AYS) is facing termination due to a lack of active members. Also, Finnish scholarly journals, published by the scientific societies, are struggling to find editors, even if publishing in national languages is generally considered important for societal impact. Minna Santaoja talked about her long experience with how the societies’ activities are routinized and there are few resources for new openings.
The discussion in the session was loosely organized around three questions:
What could/should be the role of scientific societies in sustainability transformation?
What obstacles exist for scientific societies to become more active agents for transformation?
How to vitalize scientific societies for/with action towards sustainability?
The diverse backgrounds of the participants, from engineering to ecology, philosophy, and environmental social science, as well as the science-policy interface, allowed us to approach these questions from multiple angles. We looked at the questions mainly using YHYS as an example, but many of the notions apply to other scientific societies as well.
Obstacles to active engagement
Currently, scientific societies are not generally active – or are only marginally involved – in furthering sustainability transformation, even though their members, primarily researchers, may be active to a varied degree. The voice of a society would bear more weight than that of an individual. As discussed in the session, while environmental research is normative, to begin with – aiming to solve socio-ecological problems – many researchers are insecure about taking a more societally active role. In this regard, scientific societies could provide backing, and at the same time make themselves newly relevant, facing the current crises.
The session’s participants agreed that scientific societies could and should be more active in promoting sustainability transformation in different ways. However, multiple obstacles to this were identified, in addition to volunteering not being rewarded. What prevents many scholars from active societal engagement is various precarious conditions. Many researchers work on short-term grants or contracts and are struggling for continuity and economic resources. If running the scientific societies is left to the academic precariat, the foundation is not sustainable. That is why it was discussed, whether tenured academics should take more responsibility in the scientific community and societal engagement. At the same time, we thought it necessary to recognize the current realities and how there are less and less permanent positions for everyone. We need a more diverse understanding of a successful and desirable academic career, which would allow recognition of different modes of academic leadership – including volunteering and societal engagement.
Promptness of reactions can be critical for making timely impacts on decision-making processes.
Resulting from the shortness of time and space to discuss and develop society practices, scientific societies may lack ways to respond to new situations. Scientific societies are occasionally asked to participate in petitions and statements on topics that contribute to sustainability transformation. What makes participation difficult is that societies may not have a clear procedure to decide on their position – they cannot organize a vote for their members each time. The societies would need, then, to clarify their values and write guidelines on what issues they want to take part in, and how decisions can be made even on short notice, when necessary.
Promptness of reactions can be critical for making timely impacts on decision-making processes. A decision often cannot wait until the next society meeting to be held in a few months. Defined values and guidelines could help scientific societies see their meaning more clearly as active actors in transformative change.
Who should lead the discussion on sustainability?
There is a growing discontent in academia towards the current money-, production-, and competition-oriented mode of operation which overlooks deeper values of academic work. An emerging understanding highlights the need for cultural transformation – including in the academic culture – as part of sustainability transformation. Scientific societies provide an existing platform to channel the discontent and researchers’ concern over the environment productively. Currently, within the Finnish context, this has often been left to the discretion of single academics willing to engage in such conversation.
One aspect of academic interdisciplinary reality is still the need to police disciplinary boundaries, which can either encourage or prevent researchers and scientific societies from active societal engagement.
It is broadly acknowledged that sustainability transformation requires inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration. However, one aspect of academic interdisciplinary reality is still the need to police disciplinary boundaries, which can either encourage or prevent researchers and scientific societies from active societal engagement. The question of who should drive societal impact and lead the conversation in sustainability transformations lingers.
From the perspective of natural scientists and environmental engineers, it may seem that social scientists are not doing enough and lag behind in sustainability transformation discussions. Even in cases where social scientists have the needed skills and knowledge (and sometimes status) to further these discussions, ecologists and environmental engineers may feel compelled to step up. From the social scientist’s perspective, however, this can be interpreted as natural scientists stepping on their turf without an in-depth understanding of social complexity. This highlights the need for interdisciplinary communication to understand what the others’ strengths are.
Be it as it may, our session concluded that environmental social scientists, as well as natural scientists, should all be more active in contributing to sustainability transformation in practice, and ideally, in collaboration. Having written this text at the beginning of February 2025, we were happy to learn about the joint declaration of the scientific community (the universities) and science funding agencies in Finland, in which they call for cooperation to accelerate the sustainability transformation. It’s time the scientific societies joined the movement.
MINNA SANTAOJA, ANNI ARPONEN, CORINNA CASI, ANNA MUSTONEN, SARA TASKILA & KAISA VÄLIMÄKI
Article picture: James Wheeler/Pexels
Minna Santaoja
Minna Santaoja is a docent in environmental policy. She is a long-time board member of the Finnish Society for Environmental Social Science (YHYS) and is currently the editor-in-chief of the Alue & Ympäristö journal.
Anni Arponen
Anni Arponen is a university lecturer in environmental sciences at the University of Turku. She has participated in various collaborative activities concerning how scientists should increase their impact toward transformative change. She is presently co-establishing a Finnish advocacy network for environmental scientists: www.ymparistotiedevaikuttajat.fi.
Corinna Casi
Corinna Casi is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lapland as well as at the University of Jyväskylä. She holds a PhD in environmental ethics. Corinna has been an active member of the YHYS board since 2022.
Anna Mustonen
Anna Mustonen is a doctoral researcher in environmental politics at the University of Eastern Finland and a project manager for the Sustainability transformation from the margins project. Anna is a new member of the YHYS board and a member of the editorial committee of Versus.
Sara Taskila
Sara Taskila is the president of Social Science Students of Finland (SYY) for 2025 and represents all student members of Social Science Professionals (YKA). They are a bachelor’s student of social sciences at LUT University with a minor in energy economics.
Kaisa Välimäki
Kaisa Välimäki is a knowledge broker and the executive director of the Forum for Environmental Information (FEI). She holds a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and currently serves as the head of the Editorial Board for the journal Tieteessä tapahtuu.
Action and agency are required throughout societies to carry out the needed sustainability transformation. Scientific societies have been identified as one group of actors that could be more active in leading the transformation. But are scientific societies – and their members – ready to take up this role?
S
cientific societies are organized, registered associations that aim to promote research and bring together researchers in their respective fields. However, researchers are constantly short on time, which does not encourage participation in scientific societies’ activities. In addition, while the societies may be prepared to have a say in science policy, their role remains less impactful in other pressing societal matters. We claim that by clarifying their role and values and becoming active agents for sustainability transformation, scientific societies could become significant actors and manage to attract more researchers to their ranks.
In the broad field of sustainability research, a relevant society is the Finnish Society for Environmental Social Science (YHYS). The annual colloquiums of the society bring together environmental social scientists and provide a platform for discussing timely topics. The 30th YHYS colloquium was held at the LUT University, Lappeenranta campus, in November 2024, with the theme ”The Anthropocene: Action and agency for preventing collapse”. As part of the program, a session titled “Scientific societies as actors in transformative change” was organized. We had lively discussions between the participants and decided to take the conversation further by co-authoring this text.
A growing concern in the scientific community
The session at the YHYS colloquium was convened from two starting points. The ANdiNA VI network, a diverse group of scientists from 15 countries, is concerned with the current global environmental crisis. The group got together in early 2024 to address the urgent need to reflect on, and identify, the core values and responsibilities of individual professionals and academic societies. Anni Arponen introduced the statement on the values and responsibilities of ecologists and environmental scientists, which the group produced.
Another starting point was a concern for the future of scientific societies, especially in the Finnish context. The societies are generally struggling to find new active members, as academic voluntary work is not considered a merit in the current university career system. For instance, while YHYS keeps attracting new members, the Finnish Society for Regional and Environmental Studies (AYS) is facing termination due to a lack of active members. Also, Finnish scholarly journals, published by the scientific societies, are struggling to find editors, even if publishing in national languages is generally considered important for societal impact. Minna Santaoja talked about her long experience with how the societies’ activities are routinized and there are few resources for new openings.
The discussion in the session was loosely organized around three questions:
The diverse backgrounds of the participants, from engineering to ecology, philosophy, and environmental social science, as well as the science-policy interface, allowed us to approach these questions from multiple angles. We looked at the questions mainly using YHYS as an example, but many of the notions apply to other scientific societies as well.
Obstacles to active engagement
Currently, scientific societies are not generally active – or are only marginally involved – in furthering sustainability transformation, even though their members, primarily researchers, may be active to a varied degree. The voice of a society would bear more weight than that of an individual. As discussed in the session, while environmental research is normative, to begin with – aiming to solve socio-ecological problems – many researchers are insecure about taking a more societally active role. In this regard, scientific societies could provide backing, and at the same time make themselves newly relevant, facing the current crises.
The session’s participants agreed that scientific societies could and should be more active in promoting sustainability transformation in different ways. However, multiple obstacles to this were identified, in addition to volunteering not being rewarded. What prevents many scholars from active societal engagement is various precarious conditions. Many researchers work on short-term grants or contracts and are struggling for continuity and economic resources. If running the scientific societies is left to the academic precariat, the foundation is not sustainable. That is why it was discussed, whether tenured academics should take more responsibility in the scientific community and societal engagement. At the same time, we thought it necessary to recognize the current realities and how there are less and less permanent positions for everyone. We need a more diverse understanding of a successful and desirable academic career, which would allow recognition of different modes of academic leadership – including volunteering and societal engagement.
Resulting from the shortness of time and space to discuss and develop society practices, scientific societies may lack ways to respond to new situations. Scientific societies are occasionally asked to participate in petitions and statements on topics that contribute to sustainability transformation. What makes participation difficult is that societies may not have a clear procedure to decide on their position – they cannot organize a vote for their members each time. The societies would need, then, to clarify their values and write guidelines on what issues they want to take part in, and how decisions can be made even on short notice, when necessary.
Promptness of reactions can be critical for making timely impacts on decision-making processes. A decision often cannot wait until the next society meeting to be held in a few months. Defined values and guidelines could help scientific societies see their meaning more clearly as active actors in transformative change.
Who should lead the discussion on sustainability?
There is a growing discontent in academia towards the current money-, production-, and competition-oriented mode of operation which overlooks deeper values of academic work. An emerging understanding highlights the need for cultural transformation – including in the academic culture – as part of sustainability transformation. Scientific societies provide an existing platform to channel the discontent and researchers’ concern over the environment productively. Currently, within the Finnish context, this has often been left to the discretion of single academics willing to engage in such conversation.
It is broadly acknowledged that sustainability transformation requires inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration. However, one aspect of academic interdisciplinary reality is still the need to police disciplinary boundaries, which can either encourage or prevent researchers and scientific societies from active societal engagement. The question of who should drive societal impact and lead the conversation in sustainability transformations lingers.
From the perspective of natural scientists and environmental engineers, it may seem that social scientists are not doing enough and lag behind in sustainability transformation discussions. Even in cases where social scientists have the needed skills and knowledge (and sometimes status) to further these discussions, ecologists and environmental engineers may feel compelled to step up. From the social scientist’s perspective, however, this can be interpreted as natural scientists stepping on their turf without an in-depth understanding of social complexity. This highlights the need for interdisciplinary communication to understand what the others’ strengths are.
Be it as it may, our session concluded that environmental social scientists, as well as natural scientists, should all be more active in contributing to sustainability transformation in practice, and ideally, in collaboration. Having written this text at the beginning of February 2025, we were happy to learn about the joint declaration of the scientific community (the universities) and science funding agencies in Finland, in which they call for cooperation to accelerate the sustainability transformation. It’s time the scientific societies joined the movement.
MINNA SANTAOJA, ANNI ARPONEN, CORINNA CASI, ANNA MUSTONEN, SARA TASKILA & KAISA VÄLIMÄKI
Article picture: James Wheeler/Pexels
Minna Santaoja
Minna Santaoja is a docent in environmental policy. She is a long-time board member of the Finnish Society for Environmental Social Science (YHYS) and is currently the editor-in-chief of the Alue & Ympäristö journal.
Anni Arponen
Anni Arponen is a university lecturer in environmental sciences at the University of Turku. She has participated in various collaborative activities concerning how scientists should increase their impact toward transformative change. She is presently co-establishing a Finnish advocacy network for environmental scientists: www.ymparistotiedevaikuttajat.fi.
Corinna Casi
Corinna Casi is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lapland as well as at the University of Jyväskylä. She holds a PhD in environmental ethics. Corinna has been an active member of the YHYS board since 2022.
Anna Mustonen
Anna Mustonen is a doctoral researcher in environmental politics at the University of Eastern Finland and a project manager for the Sustainability transformation from the margins project. Anna is a new member of the YHYS board and a member of the editorial committee of Versus.
Sara Taskila
Sara Taskila is the president of Social Science Students of Finland (SYY) for 2025 and represents all student members of Social Science Professionals (YKA). They are a bachelor’s student of social sciences at LUT University with a minor in energy economics.
Kaisa Välimäki
Kaisa Välimäki is a knowledge broker and the executive director of the Forum for Environmental Information (FEI). She holds a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and currently serves as the head of the Editorial Board for the journal Tieteessä tapahtuu.
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