SEES Fellows: Re-localization and Sustainability - Linking industrial and political ecology on Molokai and the Big Island, Hawaii

对可持续性的研究是一个内在的社会和生态概念，需要同时考虑社会、经济和环境系统、这些系统之间的反馈回路以及这些系统的长期生存能力。可持续发展的一种方法是“重新本地化”--一种鼓励在同一地理区域可持续生产和消费食品、能源和商品的运动。这项研究将结合工业和政治生态学的方法来评估夏威夷的重新本地化努力及其对可持续性的影响。为了确定重新本地化是否以及如何成为可持续发展的可行途径，该项目将研究重新本地化的不同方式，启用或禁止重新本地化的条件，以及重新本地化对莫洛凯岛和夏威夷群岛内的大岛的生态、文化和社会经济影响。这项研究将定性地研究重新本地化的政治，如何界定“地方”边界，谁的利益被代表，以及谁拥有重新本地化的权力，以及定量地衡量基线物质流动和重新本地化运动所引发的物质变化。这个项目将涉及各种利益相关者的重大参与，包括学术研究人员、政府机构、非政府组织和民间组织，以及通过访问当地学校、指导本科生和社区论坛获得教育机会。该项目的调查结果将阐明在确保当地社区可持续发展的背景下，各种重新本地化需求之间的潜在合作空间。该项目由NSF科学、工程和教育促进可持续发展研究员(SEE FERLOS)计划支持，目标是帮助实现必要的发现，为导致环境、能源和社会可持续发展的行动提供信息，同时培养必要的劳动力来应对这些挑战。在SEES研究员的支持下，该项目将使有前途的早期职业研究人员能够在与可持续发展相关的独立研究生涯中站稳脚跟。

The study of sustainability, an inherently social and ecological concept, requires simultaneous consideration of social, economic, and environmental systems, the feedback loops between those systems, and the long-term viability of those systems. One approach to sustainability is "re-localization" - a movement to encourage sustainable production and consumption of food, energy and goods in the same geographic region. This research will integrate the approaches of industrial and political ecology to assess re-localization efforts in Hawaii, and their implications for sustainability. To determine whether and how re-localization is a viable pathway to sustainability, this project will examine the different ways in which re-localization is articulated, the conditions that enable or disable re-localization, and the ecological, cultural, and socio-economic effects of re-localization on the islands of Molokai and the Big Island within the Hawaiian Islands. The research will qualitatively examine the politics of re-localization, how are 'local' boundaries defined, whose interests are represented, and who wields the power to re-localize, as well as quantitatively measure baseline material flows and the material change that is precipitated by re-localization movements.This project will involve significant engagement among a variety of stakeholders, including academic researchers, government agencies, NGOs, and civic organizations, as well as educational opportunities via visits to local schools, mentoring of undergraduate students, and community forums. Findings from this project will elucidate potential spaces for collaboration between various demands for re-localization within the context of ensuring the sustainability of local communities. This project is supported under the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability Fellows (SEES Fellows) program, with the goal of helping to enable discoveries needed to inform actions that lead to environmental, energy and societal sustainability while creating the necessary workforce to address these challenges. With SEES Fellows support, this project will enable a promising early career researcher to establish themselves in an independent research career related to sustainability.