The digital shift creates threats and opportunities.
Information technology, artificial intelligence and big data have the ability to greatly accelerate business-as-usual, which could mean more inequality, surveillance and overconsumption. But the intelligent use of digital technology can also coordinate, mobilise and speed up progressive change.
Big issues are who owns and controls the digital economy, what its priorities are and who has access to it. The potential of ‘open source’ software and hardware, and whether the technologies and sector themselves are environmentally sustainable, are just two of the big questions. But there are communities, groups and enterprises around the world who are taking the best that the technology has to offer and turning it to the task of rapid transition.
Story of change
The Great Staycation – how the coronavirus pandemic could push a rapid transition to creative domestic holidaysIn the Northern hemisphere, summer is arriving and many families are deciding what to do for their holidays; trying to balance concerns about their finances...
Story of change
The land is ours – movements reversing legacies of inequality and modern land grabsFood security is one of the first victims of the increasingly extreme weather patterns linked to the climate emergency. People face even greater insecurity...
Story of change
Upward spiral: how circular economies break the cycle of overconsumptionThe climate emergency is a result of the sheer weight of human economic activity on the biosphere. Extraction of resources and the production of waste is...
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Report
Climate & Rapid Behaviour Change. What do we know so far?“We’ve shown in the past that surprising changes are possible in how people behave, in smoking, driving, antibiotics, and sexual health. We now know...
Story of change
Converting industry – how rapid transition happens in crises and upheavalsA brewer of ‘craft’ beer starts making sanitising hand gel and a car manufacturer converts one of its factories so it can make medical face masks. Just...
Story of change
From financial exclusion to financial revolution: the story of mobile moneyUpdate Since publishing this story of change, we have seen an interesting critique of the original paper that underpins much of the narrative, ‘The...
Story of change
From passive consumers to active producers – how crisis restrictions open opportunities for creative culture shiftsAs the global pandemic continues to reshape whole economies and the lives of populations, normal consumer behaviour has been suddenly altered. The focus has...
Report
How did we do that? The possibility of rapid transitionA booklet which collects stories of rapid transitions to show what we can learn from history and the present day about how people adapt to rapid change.
Story of change
Make do and mend: the rise of repair cafesThe relationship with ‘stuff’ in high-consuming, wealthy economies is set to change. From the European Union to the United States new laws are being...
Story of change
Pandemic lessons for the climate emergencyPandemics change business-as-usual overnight. Governments mobilise huge resources to tackle the problem and compensate for its impacts. At the same time,...
Story of change
Rethinking work – the sudden end of the regular 9-to-5 working day?For millions of people around the world working lives have been suddenly turned upside down. As offices, shops and other workplaces close in the face of a...
Commentary
The business of rapid transitionBusiness represents the great paradox of rapid transition. On the one hand, much is expected of business in terms of technological innovation, new models of...
