Evolution of Regional Socio-Economic System Toward "Islands of Sustainability"

Heinz Peter Wallner
Michael Narodoslawsky


DOI: 10.2190/VL9D-W5UJ-QPY8-RLNJ

Abstract

This article investigates the transition process from the unsustainable to the sustainable socio-economic system. It is assumed that this transition process can be characterized as an evolutionary process. In order to build a bridge from biological evolution to sustainable development the fields of complexity and entropic development are investigated. Furthermore the article emphasizes that sustainable development will most probably be introduced at the local level first. These point-like sustainable systems are defined as Islands of Sustainability (IOS). IOS are characterized as "innovative disturbances" able to jeopardize the structural stability of the unsustainable system, and hence, able to introduce wider sustainable development. It is argued that the development of IOS and furthermore the transition toward wider sustainable development is connected to the state of the ongoing paradigm change from the mechanistic to the holistic (synergetic, network) paradigm.

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.