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 with respect to technological and energy systems, political mobilization, financial markets and sociocultural norms and behaviors have been suggested as potential key drivers towards climate action.

Drawing from expert insights 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 towards climate action. We illustrate this definition with the European political system as an example of potential social tipping processes, highlighting the prospective role of the FridaysForFuture movement.

Accordingly, this conceptual framework for social tipping processes can be utilized to illuminate mechanisms for necessary transformative climate change mitigation policies and actions.

社会转型对于应对关键的全球挑战是必要的，例如缓解人为气候变化和实现联合国可持续发展目标。最近，社会小费过程受到了越来越多的关注，因为它们呈现出一种社会变革形式，由于强烈的自我放大（数学上的正）反馈机制，微小的变化可以将敏感的社会系统转变为性质不同的状态。与技术和能源系统、政治动员、金融市场和社会文化规范和行为有关的社会倾斜过程被认为是气候行动的潜在关键驱动因素。

根据专家见解和全面的文献综述，我们开发了一个框架来识别和描述对促进快速社会转型至关重要的社会小费过程。我们发现社会小费过程与已经更广泛研究的气候和生态小费动态的那些过程是不同的。特别是，我们将人类能动性、社会制度网络结构、不同的空间和时间尺度以及日益增加的复杂性确定为社会小费过程背后的关键独特特征。基于这些特征，我们提出了社会小费过程的正式定义，并为那些可能对未来气候行动轨迹起决定性作用的过程提出了过滤标准。

因此，这个社会小费过程的概念框架可用于阐明必要的变革性气候变化缓解政策和行动的机制。