On the other hand, I find it important to maintain the distinction between pioneers and change agents made by the WBGU report reviewed in Chap. 2: one and
the same group or individual cannot necessarily do everything. Testing deviating
practical solutions or business models is much more work than following the
well-trodden path dependencies; it often binds all of the available resources. To
expect the same pioneers to also develop political campaigns might well be unrealistic. During my time in Brussels, for example, politicians in favor of rewriting the
green policy framework were urging civil society to provide studies and communicate how, for example, renewable energy technology or biologically degradable
products could replace many dirty solutions if regulation allowed for them to be
scaled up. These innovations are typically developed by SMEs that simply do not
have the spare resources for significant lobbying. On the other hand, the big
potential losers (the polluters and so on) do, and they shout loudest. Thus, while
some people in Transition Towns can focus on experimenting with the new practical solutions, others could engage in political processes.
Or other change agents, like myself, could pick up on these examples to make
them known and fit them into a political agenda. Networking support, political
engagement, and visibility have been growing significantly in recent years.
Transition Towns or initiatives are crucial examples of how system innovations that
link an update in physical technologies like renewable energy with those of the
social technologies around them, will have much more impact for sustainability
than solar panels alone.
If the ecological systems and their importance for future human well-being are
prioritized and the least destructive technologies chosen for need-satisfaction
strategies that do not rule out sufficiency, we have a great example of
system-repurposing. It echoes the two key points in the Brundtland definition of
sustainable development: satisfying human needs in the long term and choosing
processes that will not threaten the planet’s ability to replenish the resources to do
so. Such progress can only be measured with indicators that go beyond GDP.
4.3 Pioneering Governments: Beyond GDP Measures
as Development Frames
Indicators frame the way we view things, which aspects we pay most attention to
and which rationales are reproduced. Since the Brundtland Report there have been
many indicator initiatives aimed at going beyond GDP at all levels of governance
and some of them have gained quite a lot of public attention. The UN HDI, for
example, first launched in 1990, expanded per capita GDP measurement to include
education and life expectancy in its overview of successful country development.
The GPI discussed in Chap. 3 seeks to correct GDP numbers according to the
natural capital destroyed and the negative social impacts that this method of wealth
generation causes people.
130
4 Mapping an Emerging New Economic Paradigm in Practice
the same group or individual cannot necessarily do everything. Testing deviating
practical solutions or business models is much more work than following the
well-trodden path dependencies; it often binds all of the available resources. To
expect the same pioneers to also develop political campaigns might well be unrealistic. During my time in Brussels, for example, politicians in favor of rewriting the
green policy framework were urging civil society to provide studies and communicate how, for example, renewable energy technology or biologically degradable
products could replace many dirty solutions if regulation allowed for them to be
scaled up. These innovations are typically developed by SMEs that simply do not
have the spare resources for significant lobbying. On the other hand, the big
potential losers (the polluters and so on) do, and they shout loudest. Thus, while
some people in Transition Towns can focus on experimenting with the new practical solutions, others could engage in political processes.
Or other change agents, like myself, could pick up on these examples to make
them known and fit them into a political agenda. Networking support, political
engagement, and visibility have been growing significantly in recent years.
Transition Towns or initiatives are crucial examples of how system innovations that
link an update in physical technologies like renewable energy with those of the
social technologies around them, will have much more impact for sustainability
than solar panels alone.
If the ecological systems and their importance for future human well-being are
prioritized and the least destructive technologies chosen for need-satisfaction
strategies that do not rule out sufficiency, we have a great example of
system-repurposing. It echoes the two key points in the Brundtland definition of
sustainable development: satisfying human needs in the long term and choosing
processes that will not threaten the planet’s ability to replenish the resources to do
so. Such progress can only be measured with indicators that go beyond GDP.
4.3 Pioneering Governments: Beyond GDP Measures
as Development Frames
Indicators frame the way we view things, which aspects we pay most attention to
and which rationales are reproduced. Since the Brundtland Report there have been
many indicator initiatives aimed at going beyond GDP at all levels of governance
and some of them have gained quite a lot of public attention. The UN HDI, for
example, first launched in 1990, expanded per capita GDP measurement to include
education and life expectancy in its overview of successful country development.
The GPI discussed in Chap. 3 seeks to correct GDP numbers according to the
natural capital destroyed and the negative social impacts that this method of wealth
generation causes people.
130
4 Mapping an Emerging New Economic Paradigm in Practice