Project
Towards a new economic paradigm for sustainable transitions
A debate has reignited amongst scholars on how societies can satisfy the basic social needs of its population while staying within the environmental planetary boundaries. New economic paradigms have emerged more conducive for stimulating circular or climate neutral development. Which are these, and how do these shape our perceptions and assumptions?
With only limited evidence of countries moving (en masse) to sustainable development trajectories, a set of new economic paradigms has emerged in the literature. GiInven the strong relevance of such paradigms to many WUR research projects, a need emerges to understand them in greater detail. Specifically, this KB project aims to investigate how these paradigms change our perception of, and our approach to sustainable development transitions towards a circular or climate neutral society. It commences with a detailed literature review aimed at documenting the diversity of the new economic paradigms: their theoretical underpinnings and underlying differences in how societal effects or relations are valued, as well as proposed alterations to the current set of economic rules. The review documents where (elements of) these paradigms have been adopted in policy-making and how such adoption or transition was negotiated politically. In the second phase of this project the key learnings from the review will be applied to selected case studies. This phase aims to challenge our (WUR) mutual understanding and assumptions on promoting sustainable development transitions and contrast these with insights from these new economic paradigms. How will they our perceptions and assumptions and how will it affect the way WUR research(ers) approach sustainable development transitions?