Values as leverage points for sustainability transformation: two pathways for transformation research

The burgeoning literature on sustainability transformation agrees that values play a key, albeit unelucidated, role on the transformation research agenda. Recent literature linking values and transformation increasingly points toward the hypothesis that values may act as leverage points for sustainability transformation. However, how transformation research can engage with values as leverage points remains a critical knowledge gap. Here, I argue that transformation research needs to distinguish between two modes of knowledge production and mobilization: a linear, knowledge-first, mode-1 science, and a context-sensitive, linearity-contesting, mode-2 science. Based on this distinction, I identify two complementary pathways for transformation research to contribute to unleashing the transformative potential of values. I clarify that interventions targeting values rely on the stance taken on the relationship between science and society, and between production and governance of research. Knowledge about values as leverage points needs to be produced from both a mode-1 and mode-2 science perspective.