SmartCSOs

2013
Smart CSOs

Abstract: The core Smart CSOs purpose is to learn about and improve our system change (Great Transition) strategies to overcome our inequitable growth-obsessed global economic system as well as the globally spreading culture of consumerism and marketisation of nearly every sphere of life; and promote the transition to an economic system based on the principles of ecological limits, solidarity, human wellbeing and intergenerational justice - in this paper called eco-solidarity economy. To help us have an informed discussion on how we as change agents in civil society can improve our theories and strategies of change, in 2011 the Smart CSOs Report introduced a model of change. This is an evolved version of the multi-level-perspective diagram previously used and developed by transition researchers F. Geels, J. Rotmans, A. Smith and others. This short paper presents an updated version of the original model and makes an attempts to show its practical relevance. The paper puts the model into the context of the world we are currently living in, reflects on what is holding us back from a transition to sustainability, and provides a few examples of how civil society organisations are using promising new ways of working towards systemic change. Its immediate intention is to serve as a framework and support the discussions at the civil Society in Transition Conference in October 2013.

Keyword(s): system change ; global economic system ; human wellbeing ; Global Justice ; Sustainable Development