The DOI matches its Crossref record; 52 of the 54 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Overcoming systemic roadblocks to sustainability: The evolutionary redesign of worldviews, institutions, and technologies
Open accessAbstract
A high and sustainable quality of life is a central goal for humanity. Our current socio-ecological regime and its set of interconnected worldviews, institutions, and technologies all support the goal of unlimited growth of material production and consumption as a proxy for quality of life. However, abundant evidence shows that, beyond a certain threshold, further material growth no longer significantly contributes to improvement in quality of life. Not only does further material growth not meet humanity's central goal, there is mounting evidence that it creates significant roadblocks to sustainability through increasing resource constraints (i.e., peak oil, water limitations) and sink constraints (i.e., climate disruption). Overcoming these roadblocks and creating a sustainable and desirable future will require an integrated, systems level redesign of our socio-ecological regime focused explicitly and directly on the goal of sustainable quality of life rather than the proxy of unlimited material growth. This transition, like all cultural transitions, will occur through an evolutionary process, but one that we, to a certain extent, can control and direct. We suggest an integrated set of worldviews, institutions, and technologies to stimulate and seed this evolutionary redesign of the current socio-ecological regime to achieve global sustainability.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“This requires a redesign of world views, institutions and technologies (Beddoe et al. 2009).”
From Perspectives on agroecological transition: the case of Guachetá municipality, Colombia (2023) · cites this paper as Beddoe et al. 2009
Citations
Cites
The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital
Costanza, R., d'Arge, R., de Groot, R., Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., Limburg, K., Naeem, S., O'Neill, R. V., Paruelo, J., et al. (1997) · Nature · doi:10.1038/387253a0 · Cited by 22,585
Self-citationHuman domination of Earth’s ecosystems
Vitousek, P. M., Mooney, H. A., Lubchenco, J., & Melillo, J. M. (1997) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.277.5325.494 · Cited by 9,086
Globalization and Its Discontents
Bögenhold, D. (2015) · Sage eBooks · doi:10.4135/9781452206905.n316 · Cited by 5,476
Climate change 2001: synthesis report
(2003) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.40-4660 · Cited by 5,293
Understanding Institutional Diversity
Elinor Ostrom, B. (2006) · Princeton University Press eBooks · doi:10.1515/9781400831739 · Cited by 5,287
(2014) · doi:10.59327/ipcc/ar5-9789291691432 · Cited by 5,217
Understanding Institutional Diversity
Ostrom, E. (2009) · doi:10.2307/j.ctt7s7wm · Cited by 4,229
Happiness: Lessons from a New Science
Cooper, R. N., & Layard, R. (2005) · Foreign Affairs · doi:10.2307/20031793 · Cited by 4,081
Muniz, A. M., & O'Guinn, T. C. (2001) · Journal of Consumer Research · doi:10.1086/319618 · Cited by 3,998
Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed
Lee, V. (2005) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.43-1028 · Cited by 3,081
Research works printed but not linked: 17
- 10.1130/0091-7613(2000)28<379:CCATCO>2.0.CO;2 · DOI
- J Wells, et al. Crude Oil: Uncertainty about Future Oil Supply Makes It Important to Develop a Strategy for Addressing a Peak and Decline in Oil Production (US Government Accountability Office, Washington, DC), pp. 82 (2007).
- J Zuchetto Trends in Oil Supply and Demand, the Potential for Peaking of Conventional Oil Production, and Possible Mitigation Options: A Summary Report of the Workshop (National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC), pp. 61 (2006).
- W Zittel, J Schindler, S Peter Uranium Resources and Nuclear Energy (Energy Watch Group, Ottobrunn, Germany), pp. 48 (2006).
- W Zittel, J Schindler Crude Oil: The Supply Outlook (Energy Watch Group, Ottobrunn, Germany), pp. 101 (2007).
- W Zittel, J Schindler, S Peter Coal: Resources and Future Production (Energy Watch Group, Ottobrunn, Germany), pp. 47 (2007).
- , eds LH Gunderson, CS Holling (Island, Washington, DC Panarchy: Understanding Transformation in Human and Natural Systems, 2002).
- JH Turner Human Institutions (Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MD, 2003).
- N Myers, J Kent The Citizen Is Willing but Society Won't Deliver: The Problem of Institutional Roadblocks (International Institute for Sustainable Development, Winnipeg, Canada, 2008).
- Current-dollar and “real” GDP (US Dept Commerce, Washington, DC, 2007).
- J Talberth, C Cobb, N Slattery The Genuine Progress Indicator 2006: A Tool for Sustainable Development (Redefining Progress, Oakland, CA, 2007).
- P Barnes Capitalism 3.0 (Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco, 2006).
- PG Brown The Commonwealth of Life: New Environmental Economics—a Treatise on Stewardship (Black Rose Books, Montreal, Canada, 2007).
- DG McNeil, Indonesia may sell, not give, bird flu virus to scientists. NY Times, International Section. (2007).
- A Gore The Assault on Reason (Penguin, New York, 2007).
- TM Tse, Buffett slams tax system disparities; speech raises at least $1 million for Clinton campaign. Washington Post, pp. 3, Section D. (2007).
- M Munasinghe, Economic, social, and environmental elements of development. The Encyclopedia of Earth, ed CJ Cleveland (National Council for Science and the Environment, Washington, DC, www.eoearth.org/article/Economic,_social,_and_environmental_elements_of_development. (2007).
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Twenty years of ecosystem services: How far have we come and how far do we still need to go?
Costanza, R., de Groot, R. S., Braat, L., Ida Kubiszewski, A., Fioramonti, L., Sutton, P. C., Farber, S., & Grasso, M. (2017) · Ecosystem Services · doi:10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.09.008 · Cited by 3,095
Self-citationOutside the Safe Operating Space of the Planetary Boundary for Novel Entities
Persson, L., Carney Almroth, B. M., Collins, C. D., Cornell, S., de Wit, C. A., Diamond, M. L., Fantke, P., Hassellöv, M., MacLeod, M., Ryberg, M. W., et al. (2022) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/acs.est.1c04158 · Cited by 1,347
Societal transformation in response to global environmental change: A review of emerging concepts
Feola, G. (2014) · AMBIO · doi:10.1007/s13280-014-0582-z · Cited by 732
Sustainable consumption within a sustainable economy – beyond green growth and green economies
Lorek, S., & Spangenberg, J. H. (2013) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.08.045 · Cited by 767
Exploring the scientific discourse on cultural sustainability
Soini, K., & Birkeland, I. (2014) · Geoforum · doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.12.001 · Cited by 670
Metadata
- Authors
- Beddoe, R., Costanza, R., Farley, J., Garza, E., Kent, J., Kubiszewski, I., Martinez, L., McCowen, T., Murphy, K., Myers, N., Ogden, Z., Stapleton, K., & Woodward, J.
- Affiliations
- Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, George D. Aiken Center,
- University of Vermont (US)
- Independent Environmental Researcher, Oxford OX4 3SE, United Kingdom; and
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2009-02-24
- Volume
- 106
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 2483-2489
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC2650289
- OpenAlex
- W2016532953
- Cited by
- 399
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 38 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 30 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 24 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 26 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 29 · 2012: 19
- FWCI
- 25.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ANU Open Research (Australian National University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Vermont
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Sustainable Development and Environmental Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy
- Keywords
- sustainability transitions, quality of life, worldview, institutions, peak oil, resource constraints, climate disruption, cultural transition, sustainable development
- MeSH terms
- Conservation of Natural Resources, Ecology, Biological Evolution, Humans, Quality of Life
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review