ABSTRACT
The Magnitude Of The changes involved in any transition to a sustainable social and economic system should not be underestimated, as W D Ruckelshaus (1989, p115), adviser to two US presidents, has pointed out:
Such a move would be a modification of society comparable to only two other changes: the agricultural revolution of the late Neolithic, and the Industrial Revolution of the past two centuries. These revolutions were gradual, spontaneous and largely unconscious. This onewill have to be a fully conscious operation guided by the best foresight society can provide—foresight pushed to the limit. If we actually do it, the undertaking will be absolutely unique in humanity's stay on the earth.
Other commentators have suggested that to achieve such a transition we need to replace the ideas and values that underlie the formidable complex of obstacles described in the last chapter with a new set of shaping ideas and values. To do this, they argue, we need not just a modification but a revolution in our thinking — what has sometimes been called a “paradigm shift”. However, it is not obvious quite how such a change can be achieved given the unsustainable paradigm's ascendancy. How is it possible to develop a new socioeconomic-political-technological framework that will allow us to tackle the interlocking problems of the global problématique?