摘要：A leverage points perspective recognises different levels of systemic depth, ranging from therelatively shallow levels of parameters and feedbacks to the deeper levels of system designand intent. Analysing a given social-ecological system for its characteristics across these fourlevels of systemic depth provides a useful diagnostic to better understand sustainabilityproblems, and can complement other types of cause-and-effect systems modelling.Moreover, the structured comparison of multiple systems can highlight whether sustainabilitychallenges in different systems have a similar origin (e.g. similar feedbacks or similar design).We used a leverage points perspective to systematically compare findings from three indepth social-ecological case studies, which investigated rural landscapes in southeasternAustralia, central Romania, and southwestern Ethiopia. Inductive coding of key findingsdocumented in over 60 empirical publications was used to generate synthesis statementsof key findings in the three case studies. Despite major socioeconomic and ecologicaldifferences, many synthesis statements applied to all three case studies. Major sustainabilityproblems occurred at the design and intent levels. For example, at the intent level, all threerural landscapes were driven by goals and paradigms that mirrored a productivist greenrevolution discourse. Our paper thus highlights that there are underlying challenges for ruralsustainability across the world, which appear to apply similarly across strongly contrastingsocioeconomic contexts. Sustainability interventions should be mindful of such deep similarities in system characteristics. We conclude that a leverage points perspective could be usedto compare many other types of social-ecological systems around the world.
