From Conventional Worlds to a New Sustainability Paradigm (NSP): Raskin’s Model Scenarios in the Light of Current Trends

Abstract

The “New Sustainability Paradigm” is considered the most innovative, democratic, and sustainable one of six different scenario classes (Market Forces and Policy Reform as conventional scenarios, Breakdown and Fortress World as Barbarization scenarios, and Eco-Communalism and the New Sustainability Paradigm as Great Transition scenarios) developed by the Global Scenario Group (GSG) of the Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) to depict possible future real life scenarios and further elaborated in Raskin’s Great Transition essay from 2002. Civil Society will be the key player in a “New Sustainability Paradigm” in which the search for a liberating, humanistic, and ecological reform changes the character of global civilization, leading to global solidarity, mutual cultural enrichment, and economic ties. As shown in this chapter, an important precondition for this development is a clear definition of Sustainable Development, a term consisting of two elements: One element depicting stability and another element depicting a process of change. Thus, “Sustainable Development” is a development which manages to preserve existing essential items, systems, and values while adapting to new conditions in a flexible way.