12.07.12
John Thackara | Essays

German Government Think-Tank Supports Fringe Change Agents


Phases of social diffusion of ideas and behaviours, and the roles of change agents in the transformation process. Source: WGBU

Good news from Germany: A ‘global transformation of values has already begun’. It’s proving tough to leverage changing attitudes into sustainable behaviour — but a transition to a more sustainable society ‘would be welcomed by a significant part of world society’.

In a 400-page report called World in Transition: A Social Contract for Sustainability, the German Advisory Council on Climate Change (WGBU), the heavyweight scientific body that advises the German Federal Government on ‘Earth System Megatrends’, reviewed a wide-range of values surveys. A significant majority of the German population, it found, views growth and capitalism with scepticism and ‘does not believe in the resilience of market-driven economic systems’.

This post-materialist thinking is not limited to the well­-off and educated. In South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, India, and China, the report also found, a significant majority supports ambitious climate protection measures, and ‘would welcome a new economic system’ to achieve that.

A key barrier to change is that value systems are often ‘abstract concepts perceived as an hypothetical area of life’. Other obstacles include a lack of long-term orientation in policy; loss aversion; path dependencies; distorted fiscal incentives; the ‘lock-in effect’ of existing systems; plus laws and institutional inertia.

Seeking inspiration, the report examines how great transformations happened in the past: the abolition of slavery; the green revolution in agriculture; the spread of the internet.

A key conclusion here is that ‘individual actors and change agents play a far larger role as drivers of transformation’ than they’ve been given credit for in the past.

The most effective change agents, states the report, ‘stimulate the latent willingness to act by questioning business as usual policies’. They also put open questions and challenges on the agenda, and embody alternative practices in the ways they work.

Change agents, the think tank finds, ‘tend to frequent the margins of society where unorthodox thinkers and outsiders are to be found’. Grassroots initiatives are especially important source; this is because ‘local actors can refer to context bound knowledge’ and ‘appreciate what will work under specific local conditions, and what will not’.

The report then asks: ‘How can these insular individual actors reach the critical mass required to transform the relationship between humankind and nature?.’

At this point our interest peaked — but the WGBU muse fell silent: No concrete ideas are proposed.

So here’s one from us: if the German Federal Government is minded to support the Doors of Perception network of margin-dwelling individuals — well, we’re minded to accept.

World in Transition: A Social Contract for Sustainability, German Advisory Council on Climate Change (WGBU) (2011)

Posted in: Social Good



Comments [3]

Though interesting, this article features big time ignorance... what is this "not limited to the well-off and educated??? A proper research on education levels and income of some of the countries enlisted: Brazil, China, Mexico, South Korea will show that these nations cannot be called uneducated or even poor, specially if we talk about natural resources, or even traditional ways to relate with nature and awareness towards protective measures.

Statements as the one referenced above only create more divisions and misunderstandings on what global efforts towards alleviating global problems really convey.

It is a pity that comments like this one of the "well-off and educated" hinder the quality of a study, specially as it refers to the need "grassroot initiatives"- doing things the way of the allegedly "educated" ones is what brought us to this hodgepodge, we have no rights to call ignorant the people from countries that still have indigenous populations that wisely relate to nature and can teach us the proper way out.
inaauchterlonie
01.07.13
06:29

inaauchterlonie,
You are right to remind me that it's "the allegedly 'educated' ones who brought us to this hodgepodge". In my defence, I quoted that sentence from the WGBU to refute another calumny: that only rich people can afford to be 'green'.
John Thackara
01.29.13
08:51

The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, but I actually thought you have something interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you could fix if you werent too busy looking for attention.Mindfulness Honolulu
rozi rose
07.08.15
03:18


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