ABSTRACT
This book concentrates on transitions. More specifi cally, it deals with radical transformation towards a sustainable society as a response to a number of persistent problems confronting contemporary modern societies. These persistent problems express themselves into crises, such as food, water, mobility and health crises, as well as energy and climate crises. According to the IEA (International Energy Agency) in its World Energy Report (2008), the latter two are interrelated and will require a massive transition from conventional energy to sustainable sources. These crises are non-cyclical and will worsen as time progresses and can lead to profound societal turmoil and tension. The problems they might bring, as well as the opportunities they offer, have been backgrounded in 2008 due to the pervasiveness of the economic and fi nancial crisis. As many commentators have pointed out, however, sometimes referring to a New Green Deal (e.g., Perez in her introduction to this book; see also Perez 2009a,b), this is unfortunate since integrating a search for sustainability into a new development path might also be the best way to solve the economic crisis. We wish to add that without such a shift to a more sustainable economy, we might also not be able to solve the fi nancial and economic crisis in the long run. We live in transitional times in search for new value systems. This goes along with turmoil, uncertainty, lack of confi dence, fear and impotence. From the transitions perspective advanced in this book, crises are a chance for change since existing institutions are pushed and many embark on a quest for new values and norms. We see the current economic crisis as a symptom of a deeper-lying systems crisis, which is rooted in the disbalance between unsustainable consumption and production patterns. If we analyze the current crisis from a transition viewpoint we can distinguish three different levels of analysis:
(i) Financial and banking crisis. This is about the fi nancial supervision and regulation of fi nancial markets. On the national, European and global level attempts are made to organize this supervision and
regulation to combat excesses and to protect consumers and investors against fraud and too risky fi nancial constructions.
