  Societal transformations are necessary to address critical global challenges,
such as mitigation of anthropogenic climate change and reaching UN sustainable
development goals. Recently, social tipping processes have received increased
attention, as they present a form of social change whereby a small change can
shift a sensitive social system into a qualitatively different state due to
strongly self-amplifying (mathematically positive) feedback mechanisms. Social
tipping processes have been suggested as key drivers of sustainability
transitions emerging in the fields of technological and energy systems,
political mobilization, financial markets and sociocultural norms and
behaviors.
  Drawing from expert elicitation and comprehensive literature review, we
develop a framework to identify and characterize social tipping processes
critical to facilitating rapid social transformations. We find that social
tipping processes are distinguishable from those of already more widely studied
climate and ecological tipping dynamics. In particular, we identify human
agency, social-institutional network structures, different spatial and temporal
scales and increased complexity as key distinctive features underlying social
tipping processes. Building on these characteristics, we propose a formal
definition for social tipping processes and filtering criteria for those
processes that could be decisive for future trajectories to global
sustainability in the Anthropocene. We illustrate this definition with the
European political system as an example of potential social tipping processes,
highlighting the potential role of the FridaysForFuture movement.
  Accordingly, this analytical framework for social tipping processes can be
utilized to illuminate mechanisms for necessary transformative climate change
mitigation policies and actions.
