The Transformative Power of Paradigms: How Shifting the Human-Nature Relationship Impacts Social-Ecological Systems

Abstract

The current global social-ecological system (SES) is extractive, polluting and prioritizes economic growth. Due to systems dynamics, reinforcing feedback loops have emerged within this SES that drive runaway growth and environmental degradation. One proposed solution is the Circular Economy (CE) which aims to decouple economic growth from environmental harm. However, it remains unclear if CE will truly achieve sustainability—defined as a system’s ability to provide for human well-being within planetary boundaries—or whether it merely adjusts the rules and parameters of a system without addressing the deeper paradigms that underpin it. As the world’s oldest continuing culture, Aboriginal communities have provided for human health and well- being within planetary boundaries for over 65,000 years, persisting under remarkably diverse and harsh conditions. What can be learned across these three different constructs and cultures, so that we may redesign our current system to one where sustainability and regeneration, instead of degradation and collapse, is inevitable? This research used systems modelling to explore how the human-nature paradigm underpinning an SES impacts on the system, its components, structures, and sustainability outcomes. I hypothesized that (1) an SES underpinned by an ecocentric human-nature paradigm would show greater sustainability than an SES underpinned by an anthropocentric human-nature paradigm. I also hypothesized that (2) SESs sharing a similar anthropocentric human-nature paradigm would exhibit similar system structures, components and sustainability outcomes, and (3) an SES with an ecocentric human-nature paradigm would present a different system structure and components, compared to one with an anthropocentric human-nature paradigm, supporting the proposition that paradigms represent a deep system leverage point. To undertake this analysis, I identified three different SESs: Business as Usual (BAU), CE, and Aboriginal. Upon confirming that each system had the appropriate human-nature paradigm for analysis, I completed a thorough literature review and identified the components and structures of each system. I then mapped each system as a Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) in Kumu to assess the visual system structure and feedback loops. Finally, I evaluated their sustainability using multiple sustainability frameworks including thin and thick, and strong and weak sustainability. The results showed that BAU and CE, which both had anthropocentric human- nature relationship paradigms, had similar system structures and components that resulted in low sustainability outcomes. Alternatively, the Aboriginal system with an ecocentric paradigm, revealed a significantly different structure and components which resulted in high levels of sustainability. This supports the idea that to shift systems to result in sustainability, we must address the human-nature relationship that underpins them. This analysis shows the value of systems thinking and the role that paradigms play in creating sustainable outcomes. Further work is needed to build, test and refine these models, and quantitatively test the qualitative ideas proposed throughout this work. Finally, as revealed by systems modelling, we urgently need a new human-nature paradigm for our global system that will result in a truly sustainable future that achieves societal well-being within planetary boundaries.