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
Making streets people friendly; the rise of car free communitiesThe rise of ‘low-car to no-car’ residential initiatives is gathering pace in many cities around the world. In the UK they offer a glimpse of how to...
Story of change
Solving the tree planting puzzle: natural forest regeneration for rapid transition and community empowermentWhen it emerged that a miscalculation by the oil company Shell meant that its new scenario for meeting the 1.5C climate target would need a new forest about...
Story of change
Reclaiming power: The rapid rise of community renewable energy and why the added benefits of local, clean power can help accelerate transitionRenewable energy is on the rise. It made up more than a quarter of global electricity generation (27%) in 2019 and is outpacing all other energy sources’...
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Story of change
Badvertising – is changing the advertising industry the next step in speeding transition?As many look to ‘build back better’ from the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, there are competing voices arguing on the one hand to restart...
Report
Cambridge Sustainability Commission report on Scaling Behaviour ChangeA major new report by the Cambridge Sustainability Commission on Scaling Behaviour Change calls on policy makers to target the UK’s polluter elite to...
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.
Resource
Journal article: the business of rapid transitionAs long as there have been attempts to develop policy on climate change at national, regional and international levels, businesses have been involved in...
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...
