Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic offers an opportunity for dealing with persistent problems, through a transformative recovery process. It is a crisis that offers opportunities for dealing with three interrelated crises: the ecological crisis (climate change, loss of biodiversity, resource depletion, pollution and ecosystem destruction), the confidence crisis (people losing trust in government, politics, companies, regular news channels, science, each other and the future), and the inequality crisis (the widening of the gap between rich and poor). Our argument is that sustainability transitions will not succeed without a different economy and another social contract with rights and duties of care for the environment and the well-being of others, including future generations. A different social contract is not only desirable from the point of view of sustainability and fairness, and justice and equality, but it is also necessary to restore citizens’ trust in politics, government, companies and each other. In the paper we discuss mechanisms towards a Natural Social Contract: systemic leverage points for system transformations and possibilities for co-evolutionary governance by actor coalitions interested in transformative change. The combination of those three elements helps to synchronize different agendas and reduce the chance that they will work against each other.
Highlights
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutralIn the EU and many other countries in the world, the need for sustainability transitions and for making the economy more fair and just is widely accepted, but the need for synchronizing the different transitions is not well-considered
In this paper we argue that a new social contract is needed to serve the various sustainability transitions agendas alongside the socio-economic agenda and the safeguarding of democracy agenda, which is currently undermined by populists or lobbyists who oppose the climate agenda and the food transition agenda, or even challenge the European rule of law principles
Our argument is that sustainability transitions will not succeed without a different economy and another social contract: a different alliance between citizens, society, economy and government, with the associated rights and duties of care
Summary
In the EU and many other countries in the world, the need for sustainability transitions and for making the economy more fair and just is widely accepted, but the need for synchronizing the different transitions (characterized by different directionality, knowledge/power constellations and values) is not well-considered. In this paper we argue that a new social contract is needed to serve the various sustainability transitions agendas (the energy transition, food transition and circular economy transition) alongside the socio-economic agenda and the safeguarding of democracy agenda, which is currently undermined by populists or (non-democratic) lobbyists who oppose the climate agenda and the food transition agenda, or even challenge the European rule of law principles (e.g., the challenge by Poland and Hungary) Each of those agendas constitutes a formidable challenge because they call for transformative change, which is resisted by powerful actors by drawing attention to costs and imperfections of alternatives.
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