Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
A system leverage points approach to governance for sustainable development
Governments are inherently responsible for citizens' well-being. Given that achieving sustainable development ["Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs"—(WCED in Our common future, Oxford University Press, New York, 1987)] is core to the attainment and maintenance of citizens' well-being, and increasingly understood to require major transformations in integrated social, technological and ecological systems (Sachs et al. in The decade of action for the sustainable development goals: sustainable development report 2021, Cambridge, 2021), it follows that governments have a significant role in shaping transformations. Muted progress on long-standing social, environmental, and economic challenges alongside spiralling public budgets and intergenerational debt suggests, however, that public governance systems are inadequate to facilitate the transformations urgently required. Conceptualising the practice of public decision-making as a complex system, this paper investigates whether known influences on public decision-makers can be linked to Meadows’ (Leverage points: places to intervene in a system, Sustainability Institute, North Charleston, 1999) leverage point framework. Finding meaningful connections, it further explores how the leverage point framework can be employed to engage decision-making influences as enablers of desirable public outcomes. It is contended that shifting decision-makers’ focus one step beyond currently prevalent leverage points will set in motion the transformations in governance required to facilitate sustainable development.
A system leverage points approach to governance for sustainable development
Governments are inherently responsible for citizens' well-being. Given that achieving sustainable development ["Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs"—(WCED in Our common future, Oxford University Press, New York, 1987)] is core to the attainment and maintenance of citizens' well-being, and increasingly understood to require major transformations in integrated social, technological and ecological systems (Sachs et al. in The decade of action for the sustainable development goals: sustainable development report 2021, Cambridge, 2021), it follows that governments have a significant role in shaping transformations. Muted progress on long-standing social, environmental, and economic challenges alongside spiralling public budgets and intergenerational debt suggests, however, that public governance systems are inadequate to facilitate the transformations urgently required. Conceptualising the practice of public decision-making as a complex system, this paper investigates whether known influences on public decision-makers can be linked to Meadows’ (Leverage points: places to intervene in a system, Sustainability Institute, North Charleston, 1999) leverage point framework. Finding meaningful connections, it further explores how the leverage point framework can be employed to engage decision-making influences as enablers of desirable public outcomes. It is contended that shifting decision-makers’ focus one step beyond currently prevalent leverage points will set in motion the transformations in governance required to facilitate sustainable development.
A system leverage points approach to governance for sustainable development
Sustain Sci
Bolton, Mitzi (Autor:in)
Sustainability Science ; 17 ; 2427-2457
01.11.2022
31 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
Springer Verlag | 2025
|Leverage points for sustainable wool production in the Falkland Islands
Elsevier | 2019
|Transformation for sustainability: a deep leverage points approach
Springer Verlag | 2021
|Radical and incremental, a multi-leverage point approach to transformation in ocean governance
Springer Verlag | 2024
|