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

可持续性的研究是一个固有的社会和生态概念，需要同时考虑社会、经济和环境系统，这些系统之间的反馈循环，以及这些系统的长期可行性。实现可持续性的一种方法是“重新本地化”，即鼓励在同一地理区域内可持续地生产和消费食品、能源和商品。本研究将整合工业生态学和政治生态学的方法来评估夏威夷的重新定位工作及其对可持续性的影响。为了确定重新定位是否以及如何成为可持续发展的可行途径，本项目将研究重新定位的不同表达方式、允许或禁止重新定位的条件，以及重新定位对莫洛凯岛和夏威夷群岛内大岛的生态、文化和社会经济影响。该研究将定性地考察再本地化的政治，如何定义“本地”边界，代表谁的利益，以及谁掌握再本地化的权力，以及定量地测量基线物质流动和由再本地化运动引发的物质变化。该项目将涉及包括学术研究人员、政府机构、非政府组织和民间组织在内的各种利益相关者的大量参与，并通过访问当地学校、指导本科生和社区论坛提供教育机会。该项目的研究结果将阐明在确保当地社区可持续性的背景下，重新定位的各种需求之间的潜在合作空间。该项目由美国国家科学基金会科学、工程和教育可持续发展研究员（SEES研究员）计划支持，其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，同时创造必要的劳动力来应对这些挑战。在see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性相关的独立研究生涯中建立自己的职业生涯。

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.