Ilan Chabay

Ilan’s three careers have taken him from natural science research to social entrepreneurship to social science research to a transdisciplinary synthesis of all three. Over the past 15+ years, his focus has been on understanding processes of societal change to sustainable futures, including scientific, local, and cultural knowledge co-production; characterizing narrative expressions of vision and identity to guide and motivate collective behavior change; using narratives to model social dynamics; collaborative creativity for social innovation; design of games and exhibitions to engage publics with accessible experiences to stimulate curiosity about sustainability. Since 2008 Ilan has been head of the knowledge, learning, and societal change international alliance (KLASICA) for understanding and catalyzing positive collective behavior change to sustainable futures, based at IASS from 2015-2021. In the past decade, KLASICA produced new conceptual and empirical knowledge in 40+ publications. KLASICA 2.0 launched in 2022 as an independent international platform of researchers and institutions, with plans for an innovative Digital Observatory of Narratives of Sustainability (DONS).