A proper repurposing or system innovation process therefore begins with what
the WSSR 2013 called “futures literacy”: identifying and exposing “hidden,
unexamined and sometimes flawed assumptions about present and past systems”
(ISSC and UNESCO 2013: 8). Changing the way we see the world also changes the
way we are in the world—and how we imagine promising development paths and
their governance. In the words of Meadows: “Paradigms are the sources of systems.
From them form shared social agreements about the nature of reality, come system
goals and information flows, feedbacks, stocks, flows and everything else about
systems” (Meadows 1999: 16).
This is what I seek to capture with the concept materiality of ideas as illustrated
in Fig. 2.5. It describes how humans are both subject and object of making history,
how reality today shapes the imaginary of how reality could be in the future.
As a purposefully acting species, humans create relationships and physical
technologies as well as social institutions to engage with each other and with nature
in the creation of goods and services deemed necessary or desirable. Thus, prevailing paradigms and their key ideas are embedded into very tangible structural
outcomes that in turn confront and embed individuals within processes and systems
Fig. 2.5 The materiality of old ideas in today’s systems. Source Own illustration
44
2 What Political Economy Adds to Transformation Research
the WSSR 2013 called “futures literacy”: identifying and exposing “hidden,
unexamined and sometimes flawed assumptions about present and past systems”
(ISSC and UNESCO 2013: 8). Changing the way we see the world also changes the
way we are in the world—and how we imagine promising development paths and
their governance. In the words of Meadows: “Paradigms are the sources of systems.
From them form shared social agreements about the nature of reality, come system
goals and information flows, feedbacks, stocks, flows and everything else about
systems” (Meadows 1999: 16).
This is what I seek to capture with the concept materiality of ideas as illustrated
in Fig. 2.5. It describes how humans are both subject and object of making history,
how reality today shapes the imaginary of how reality could be in the future.
As a purposefully acting species, humans create relationships and physical
technologies as well as social institutions to engage with each other and with nature
in the creation of goods and services deemed necessary or desirable. Thus, prevailing paradigms and their key ideas are embedded into very tangible structural
outcomes that in turn confront and embed individuals within processes and systems
Fig. 2.5 The materiality of old ideas in today’s systems. Source Own illustration
44
2 What Political Economy Adds to Transformation Research