Keeping it complex: advancing sustainability research through complexity-based integrative reviews

Sustainability challenges, characterized by their ambiguity and interdisciplinarity, require novel research methods capable of navigating their complexity. Traditional linear research approaches are inadequate for addressing grand challenges such as sustainability, which involve circular cause-and-effect relationships across social, technical, political, and ecological domains. This chapter presents a methodological approach called complexity-based integrative reviews to address such challenges. The first step is an integrative literature review, which allows researchers to bring together diverse knowledge from different disciplines. In the second step, qualitative system dynamics models are used to visualize and analyse complex interactions within the system. By integrating integrative reviews with qualitative system dynamics models, this approach provides a robust framework for comprehensively understanding and addressing sustainability challenges. Methodological challenges are addressed and implications and limitations are discussed, highlighting the potential of this approach to advance sustainable development agendas.