Hi Gary,

just when I was about to suggest the Mars trilogy, you came in with this reply...

Just for everybody else: Read Red Mars , Green Mars, and Blue Mars!

Besides, I agree with you. As a fanatic SF and fantasy reader, I've read many dystopia settings, an very few utopias.. I like some of the (digital...) worlds that Tad Williams explores in his Otherland series, but there is very little underlying science.

I suppose you are familiar with Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia?

Let me know if you come across anything!

I can recommend the work of Joost Vervoort:

Vervoort et al., 2009. Stepping into futures: exploring the potential of interactive media for participatory scenarios on social ecological systems. Futures 42

Hi Garry, good question. However, you are supposed to be in the best position to answer to your own question being deeply involved in the Resilience Alliance. I guess that from that large scale point of observation you could be among the firsts to perceive if there are any good novels in this respect. However, since you posed that question I wonder if there are any...I'm curious to know what you think and then I turn the same question to you, do you have any evidence of novels that best explore or provide visions of positive sustainable futures?

By the way, we try to advance something in this respect see for instance

two papers on Landscape Ecology "Highlighting order and disorder in social-ecological landscapes to foster adaptive capacity and sustainability...." and "Informing landscape planning and design for sustaining ecosystem services from existing spatial patterns and knowledge".

Monique and Giovanni - thanks for your answers. Monique, I know Joost and Kasper and I like that work. In the MA, we developed 3 relatively positive future scenarios, but I was interested in learning if people had encountered good novels on sustainable futures. And in answer to Giovanni's question.

I think there aren't that many novels that show a vison of positive relatively near future (say 10-70 years).

The main example that comes to my mind is the work of Kim Stanley Robinson, an interesting green left science fiction writer. He has written a few novels - such as Pacific Edge, Antartica and most famously his Mars Trilogy - that develop at least fairly positive visions of a 'sustainable future.' His work builds on the Californian utopian tradition - and the grandaddy of sustainability science fiction Callenbach's 'Ecotopia.'

After that I can think of lots of dystopias but not too many novels that explore positive ecological futures.

I'd really love to hear about other novels that take place in positive ecological futures. Any suggestions???

Hi Gary,

just when I was about to suggest the Mars trilogy, you came in with this reply...

Just for everybody else: Read Red Mars , Green Mars, and Blue Mars!

Besides, I agree with you. As a fanatic SF and fantasy reader, I've read many dystopia settings, an very few utopias.. I like some of the (digital...) worlds that Tad Williams explores in his Otherland series, but there is very little underlying science.

I suppose you are familiar with Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia?

Let me know if you come across anything!

Iain Banks's the culture offers a vision of a positive post-scarcity future, but there are no social-ecological struggles because technology and science have eliminated planetary boundaries.

Hi Garry, Great Question. A few thoughts

Some of Manjana Milkoret's work is likely applicable: https://climateimagination.asu.edu/

Steve Carpenter is leading a neat scenarios initative that tells 'neutral' stories about the future: https://wsc.limnology.wisc.edu/yahara2070

Cheers,

Kaitlyn