| Arianne Bijma | Monday, September 03, 2001 - 11:05 am
Sustainability can only be reached when entire systems of products, services, infrastructures and consumer behaviour are innovated. |
| Nicola | Friday, September 21, 2001 - 12:17 am
I Agree with you, Arianne. I use to say that such an innovation should correspond to a new paradigm. Someone takes that term (paradigm) to seriously, it's like talking about a new age, and therefore it seems one of those approaches that celebrate utopian changes. By new paradigm I simply mean a new way of doing things, a new way of setting goals and priority, selecting which problems are important, which strategies are relevant to solve those problems, which theories and tacit knowledge are implicitely involved and which models are relevant.
Cheers
Nicola |
| Oksana Mont | Friday, September 21, 2001 - 08:02 am
I have a few concerns regarding system innovation.
First one is about collaborative nature of such systems and the problem is that there is some research, which shows that cooperation and collaboration does not always provide expected outcomes, or even prevents from reaching a desired goal. Has anybody looked into this area from PSS/3S point of view? I have not seen anything so far ...
Second point refers to the behavioural change. Of course it should be part of the system. But the question is not whether it is a part of the system or not, but should rather be how to embed it into the system and shape it so that we can change consumption or whatever patterns. Do we know many examples of such systems where private consumers are involved and educated, and, based on that make, conscious decisions? I don't. My only hope was the so-called Electrolux's project on the island of Gotland in Sweden, but it seems that it did not take into account consumer perceptions at all. So how do we study it in the absence of practical examples and change it, if it proved to be necessary?
Regards, Oksana |
| stuart swanston | Thursday, October 04, 2001 - 12:33 am
surely to have any chance of success we should be talking about citizens and not consumers? the former is pro-active concept whilst the latter is merely passive. i know that progressive corporations pay high regard to their customers but not all citizens' concerns can be dealt with by 'client relations' departments or focus groups. so long as we don't confuse or conflate the two - whose interests sometimes coincide but most times do not - we can have a fruitful debate.
i must declare an interest because i live in the house which was once the home of adam fergusson who wrote 'an essay on the history of civil society' about 220 years ago and i believe that we should pay as much attention to the informal relationships between people as we do the formal. the latter may be as dignified as the former are efficient. someone else mentioned 'paradigms' so we should remember how quickly paradigms shifts can occur and it would be unfortunate if the debate considered issues in relation to consumers to the exclusion of citizens. |
| Bas de Leeuw | Monday, November 05, 2001 - 02:22 pm
Citizens/consumers: passive/active ... I think that it is more relevant to focus on what the system can deliver in terms of output (satisfaction of consumer's needs) and how to make that atttractive enough and how to communicate about it in a sophisticated ways. The consumer/citizen will then buy/use the service just because it satisfies his/her own individual need. The success of the system has to depend on attractiveness for the (mass) consumer rather than on the "co-operation" of citizens/consumers who are willing to "consume sustainable, responsible, with respect" or whatever term we'd like to give it. In my speech at the conference, last Monday, opening session, I listed three ways of changing people's behaviour: force, convince or seduce. In my view seduction (or: facilitate, meaning: linking to already existing preferences) is the most challenging way of going forward.The environmental/sustainable aspect then can be really incorporated in the service, BUT be sort of invisible for the consumer. So yes to technological progress and product and service innovation, but please always start with the consumer! What's the functional unit, real or perceived, and give him/her that! |
| Charles Levenstein | Tuesday, November 06, 2001 - 01:19 pm
I think that "convince" is the most likely path to sustainability. Seduction is ok for a one-night stand and "force" certainly is not a long-term solution. Sustainability must involve the citizen/consumer/worker in the process of system design or we will be stuck with elite notions of the future, as well as with the power relations implicit in manipulation -- a dubious path to say the least. |
| DeniseLaGrouw | Tuesday, December 11, 2001 - 09:33 am
Sir Peter Blake, the founder of BlakeExpeditions has recently been murdered. I feel the lessons he has left us with are extremely valuable. He was a man of action, and as such set up an organisation that allowed people access to his travels through the north pole and the Amazon via internet. Kids in schools would log on first thing in the morning to learn and see the past days adventure. What new animals did they find, what were the people like, why was the amazon so important to the global ecosystem. This action leads to change. Community empowerment throught the provision of information on how the world is, coupled by practical solutions that they are able to take home and feel empowered by implementing. In many countries, including mine, there is no course of study that allows us to focus on a complete raft of sustainable research. Attempting to start a community centre for environmental understanding is extremely difficult, and the economic/research focus of our nation is following the non sustainable path. I fear that we have forgotten the importance of the need for sustianble development. Sustainability itself is become a hollow mantra. We need to engage our community, and that means working from the Bottom up, not the top down. Action is the key to change, action and information leads to empowered communities. |