IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i2p726-d479721.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Science-Driven Societal Transformation, Part III: Design

Author

Listed:
  • John C. Boik

    (Courtesy Faculty, Environmental Sciences Graduate Program, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA)

Abstract

Climate change, biodiversity loss, and other major social and environmental problems pose severe risks. Progress has been inadequate and scientists, global policy experts, and the general public increasingly conclude that transformational change is needed across all sectors of society in order to improve and maintain social and ecological wellbeing. At least two paths to transformation are conceivable: (1) reform of and innovation within existing societal systems (e.g., economic, legal, and governance systems); and (2) the de novo development of and migration to new and improved societal systems. This paper is the final in a three-part series of concept papers that together outline a novel science-driven research and development program aimed at the second path. It summarizes literature to build a narrative on the topic of de novo design of societal systems. The purpose is to raise issues, suggest design possibilities, and highlight directions and questions that could be explored in the context of this or any R&D program aimed at new system design. This paper does not present original research, but rather provides a synthesis of selected ideas from the literature. Following other papers in the series, a society is viewed as a superorganism and its societal systems as a cognitive architecture. Accordingly, a central goal of design is to improve the collective cognitive capacity of a society, rendering it more capable of achieving and sustainably maintaining vitality. Topics of attention, communication, self-identity, power, and influence are discussed in relation to societal cognition and system design. A prototypical societal system is described, and some design considerations are highlighted.

Suggested Citation

  • John C. Boik, 2021. "Science-Driven Societal Transformation, Part III: Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-26, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:2:p:726-:d:479721
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/726/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/726/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shibly Shahrier & Koji Kotani & Makoto Kakinaka, 2016. "Social Value Orientation and Capitalism in Societies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-19, October.
    2. Schot, Johan & Kanger, Laur, 2018. "Deep transitions: Emergence, acceleration, stabilization and directionality," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(6), pages 1045-1059.
    3. Martinangeli, Andrea F.M. & Martinsson, Peter, 2020. "We, the rich: Inequality, identity and cooperation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 249-266.
    4. John C. Boik, 2020. "Science-Driven Societal Transformation, Part I: Worldview," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-28, August.
    5. John C. Boik, 2020. "Science-Driven Societal Transformation, Part II: Motivation and Strategy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-23, September.
    6. Michael P. Schlaile & Sophie Urmetzer & Vincent Blok & Allan Dahl Andersen & Job Timmermans & Matthias Mueller & Jan Fagerberg & Andreas Pyka, 2017. "Innovation Systems for Transformations towards Sustainability? Taking the Normative Dimension Seriously," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-20, December.
    7. Gabriel Zucman, 2019. "Global Wealth Inequality," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 109-138, August.
    8. Mohamed Rabie, 2013. "The Evolution of Capitalism," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Saving Capitalism and Democracy, chapter 0, pages 41-60, Palgrave Macmillan.
    9. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Guido Schmidt-Traub & Mariana Mazzucato & Dirk Messner & Nebojsa Nakicenovic & Johan Rockström, 2019. "Six Transformations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 2(9), pages 805-814, September.
    10. John C. Boik, 2020. "Science-Driven Societal Transformation, Part III: Design," Working Paper 0012, Principled Societies Project.
    11. John C. Boik, 2014. "Economic Direct Democracy: A Framework to End Poverty and Maximize Well-Being," Book, Principled Societies Project, number 0004.
    12. Claudius Graebner & Amineh Ghorbani, 2019. "Defining institutions - A review and a synthesis," ICAE Working Papers 89, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    13. Geels, Frank W., 2002. "Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: a multi-level perspective and a case-study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(8-9), pages 1257-1274, December.
    14. Mohamed Rabie, 2013. "Saving Capitalism and Democracy," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-32131-2, October.
    15. Robert J. Brulle & Melissa Aronczyk & Jason Carmichael, 2020. "Corporate promotion and climate change: an analysis of key variables affecting advertising spending by major oil corporations, 1986–2015," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 87-101, March.
    16. Mohamed Rabie, 2013. "Capitalism and Democracy," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Saving Capitalism and Democracy, chapter 0, pages 61-76, Palgrave Macmillan.
    17. Nathan J. Bennett & Jessica Blythe & Andrés M. Cisneros-Montemayor & Gerald G. Singh & U. Rashid Sumaila, 2019. "Just Transformations to Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-18, July.
    18. Vandeventer, James Scott & Cattaneo, Claudio & Zografos, Christos, 2019. "A Degrowth Transition: Pathways for the Degrowth Niche to Replace the Capitalist-Growth Regime," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 272-286.
    19. Roth, Steffen, 2015. "Free economy! On 3628800 alternatives of and to capitalism," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 27(2), pages 107-128.
    20. Christoph Görg & Ulrich Brand & Helmut Haberl & Diana Hummel & Thomas Jahn & Stefan Liehr, 2017. "Challenges for Social-Ecological Transformations: Contributions from Social and Political Ecology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-21, June.
    21. Michel Henry Bouchet & Charles A. Fishkin & Amaury Goguel, 2018. "Managing Country Risk in an Age of Globalization," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-89752-3, December.
    22. Schaerer, Michael & du Plessis, Christilene & Yap, Andy J. & Thau, Stefan, 2018. "Low power individuals in social power research: A quantitative review, theoretical framework, and empirical test," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 73-96.
    23. Johanna Hornung & Nils C. Bandelow & Colette S. Vogeler, 2019. "Social identities in the policy process," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 52(2), pages 211-231, June.
    24. Catrien J.A.M. Termeer & Art Dewulf & G. Robbert Biesbroek, 2017. "Transformational change: governance interventions for climate change adaptation from a continuous change perspective," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(4), pages 558-576, April.
    25. John C. Boik, 2014. "First Microsimulation Model of a LEDDA Community Currency-Dollar Economy," Working Paper 0001, Principled Societies Project, revised Oct 2014.
    26. Lyle Scruggs & Thomas J. Hayes, 2017. "The Influence of Inequality on Welfare Generosity," Politics & Society, , vol. 45(1), pages 35-66, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Seung-Ju Choe & Seung-Hoon Han, 2021. "Applicability of Assessment Indices for Hanok-User Sensory Comfort Based on Visual and Tactile Comfort Evaluation Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-23, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John C. Boik, 2020. "Science-Driven Societal Transformation, Part III: Design," Working Paper 0012, Principled Societies Project.
    2. John C. Boik, 2020. "Science-Driven Societal Transformation, Part II: Motivation and Strategy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-23, September.
    3. John C. Boik, 2020. "Science-Driven Societal Transformation, Part I: Worldview," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-28, August.
    4. John C. Boik, 2016. "Optimality of Social Choice Systems: Complexity, Wisdom, and Wellbeing Centrality," Working Paper 0005, Principled Societies Project, revised Mar 2017.
    5. Huijie Li & Jie Li, 2021. "Risk Governance and Sustainability: A Scientometric Analysis and Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-18, October.
    6. Rudy Vannevel & Peter L. M. Goethals, 2021. "Structural and Contentual Complexity in Water Governance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-46, August.
    7. Marco Gallegati, 2019. "A system for dating long wave phases in economic development," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 803-822, July.
    8. Pigford, Ashlee-Ann E. & Hickey, Gordon M. & Klerkx, Laurens, 2018. "Beyond agricultural innovation systems? Exploring an agricultural innovation ecosystems approach for niche design and development in sustainability transitions," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 116-121.
    9. Seerp Wigboldus & Jan Brouwers & Herman Snel, 2019. "How a Strategic Scoping Canvas Can Facilitate Collaboration between Partners in Sustainability Transitions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    10. Kriechbaum, Michael & Posch, Alfred & Hauswiesner, Angelika, 2021. "Hype cycles during socio-technical transitions: The dynamics of collective expectations about renewable energy in Germany," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    11. Andersen, Allan Dahl & Markard, Jochen, 2020. "Multi-technology interaction in socio-technical transitions: How recent dynamics in HVDC technology can inform transition theories," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    12. Attila Havas & Doris Schartinger & K. Matthias Weber, 2022. "Innovation Studies, Social Innovation, and Sustainability Transitions Research: From mutual ignorance towards an integrative perspective?," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 2227, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    13. Dierk Bauknecht & Allan Dahl Andersen & Karoline Dunne, 2020. "Challenges for electricity network governance in Energy transitions: Insights from Norway," Working Papers on Innovation Studies 20200115, Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo.
    14. Pel, Bonno & Raven, Rob & van Est, Rinie, 2020. "Transitions governance with a sense of direction: synchronization challenges in the case of the dutch ‘Driverless Car’ transition," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    15. Palm, Alvar, 2022. "Innovation systems for technology diffusion: An analytical framework and two case studies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    16. Tulin Dzhengiz, 2020. "A Literature Review of Inter-Organizational Sustainability Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-52, June.
    17. Liqiao Wang & Peter Wells, 2021. "Regime Confluence in Automobile Industry Transformation: Boundary Dissolution and Network Reintegration via CASE Vehicles," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-18, February.
    18. Franz Tödtling & Michaela Trippl & Veronika Desch, 2022. "New directions for RIS studies and policies in the face of grand societal challenges," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(11), pages 2139-2156, November.
    19. Gianluca Stefani & Mario Biggeri & Lucia Ferrone, 2022. "Sustainable Transitions Narratives: An Analysis of the Literature through Topic Modelling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-25, February.
    20. Pel, Bonno & Haxeltine, Alex & Avelino, Flor & Dumitru, Adina & Kemp, René & Bauler, Tom & Kunze, Iris & Dorland, Jens & Wittmayer, Julia & Jørgensen, Michael Søgaard, 2020. "Towards a theory of transformative social innovation: A relational framework and 12 propositions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(8).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:2:p:726-:d:479721. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.