Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw 🏛️
Question
Asked 11 September 2023
Does the Thomas Kuhn's paradigm evolution loop predicts the future collapse of dwarf green markets?
Since 1987 we have been trying to solve a sustainability issue like the eco-economic development issue through sustainable development means, a theory-practice inconsistency, so not surprise the social and environmental sustainability issues the Brundtland Commission highlighted then to be addressed are in worse state today,,,,Pollution still increasing and the sustainability problem more acute.
If the price distortions embedded in Adam Smith's traditional market model thinking are not addressed head on, the Thomas Kuhn.s paradigm evolution loop suggest that the worsening of the environmental abnormalities embedded fully in the traditional market thinking and partially in dwarf green market thinking will push the environmentally patched business as usual model towards collapse, which raises the question: Does the Thomas Kuhn's paradigm evolution loop predicts the future collapse of dwarf green markets?
I think yes, what do you think?
All Answers (2)
Dear Lucio,
In my opinion, Thomas Kuhn's paradigm evolution loop can indeed be a valuable tool in understanding the future development (or decline) of so-called “dwarf green markets.” Kuhn argued that science (and, more broadly, cognitive paradigms in society) develops through revolutionary change rather than gradual evolution. In short, when the current paradigm ceases to explain reality and its internal contradictions become too severe, a crisis arises, leading to the emergence of a new paradigm.
In the context of sustainable development, the issue has long struggled with theoretical and practical inadequacies, as was clearly evident since the 1987 Brundtland Report. Despite efforts to implement sustainable development solutions, issues such as pollution and climate change continue to worsen. In this sense, as you yourself note, there is a growing inconsistency between sustainability theory and actual results. In Kuhn's model, we could interpret this as a sign of a growing crisis in the paradigm of the traditional market economy, which is unable to respond effectively to environmental challenges.
Besides, “dwarfing green markets” could be seen as an attempt to patch up the existing system, which is itself structurally flawed. The traditional market model, based on Adam Smith's principles that reward short-term profits and ignore long-term environmental costs, distorts the real prices of green goods. Green markets, which are largely part of the current system, do not offer a full paradigm shift - rather, they represent a minimal modification of the paradigm, attempting to introduce green principles into a model that was not designed with sustainability in mind.
Viewed from Kuhn's perspective, these “patched” systems have limited sustainability. If the price distortions and imperfections of the traditional market model continue to worsen, as seems inevitable in the face of growing ecological problems, the current paradigm could enter a crisis phase. This leads to the possibility of the collapse of “dwarf green markets” as too weak to survive, and the need to replace them with a new, more radical approach to sustainability.
In view of the above, it can be concluded that Kuhn's paradigm evolution loop actually suggests that the future collapse of dwarf green markets is highly probable. In the longer term, there may be a breakthrough that will replace the current imperfect solutions with a new paradigm based on more fundamental economic and social changes that will be better able to respond to the challenges of sustainable development.
I would hereby like to add that Thomas Kuhn's paradigm evolution loop can be interpreted as a key model to explain both the potential demise of “dwarf green markets” and the need to implement a fundamental green transformation of the economy. Sustainable economic development, the green transformation of the economy, and the development of fully green markets are concepts that go beyond Adam Smith's traditional market paradigm, based on short-term profits and ignoring long-term environmental costs. The rationale for pursuing a green transition is based on the fact that only by building a zero-carbon, circular and environmentally responsible economy will it be possible to meet the challenges of sustainable development and minimize further negative impacts of climate change and ecosystem degradation.
To summarize these considerations of mine, Kuhn's paradigm evolution loop can be seen as an argument that without implementing fundamental changes in economic thinking, current “patched” models of sustainability, such as “dwarf green markets,” will not survive. Their place will be taken by more holistic and responsible economic models that are better suited to the challenges of the modern world. A circular economy, zero-carbon, based on renewable energy and integrated with corporate social responsibility, is the future that will truly achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
I pointed out various aspects of this important issue for the future of the planet, the future of the planet's climate and biosphere, and for the future of future generations of people in my article:
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY DEVELOPMENT AS A KEY ELEMENT OF THE PRO-ECOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE ECONOMY TOWARDS GREEN ECONOMY AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY
I invite you to join me in scientific cooperation,
Kind regards,
Dariusz Prokopowicz
1 Recommendation
Independent QLC researcher
Dariusz, thank you for taking the time to comment.
Your comment confuses me as you seem to understand well, paraphrasing the comment I have shared supporting the question very well supporting my idea that Kuhn's paradigm evolution loop thinking predicts the fall of dwarf green markets as they tend towards unsustainability, but keep in mind:
The solution to the sustainability problem in 1987/WCED was not the dwarf sustainability solution a la SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT that it gave us, later the solution to the environmental sustainability problem in 2012 RI0 + 20 or to the green market problem that they gave us was not an environmentally sustainable solution or dwarf green market solution,,,, and this means that currently:
THE SOLUTION TO A DWARF GREEN MARKET PROBLEM created by avoiding the green market paradigm shift in 2012 IS NOT ANOTHER DWARF GREEN MARKET PROBLEM as you seem to suggest....
You need to understand that all sustainable development market solutions are dwarf market solutions; and hence, all environmentally sustainable development solutions are dwarf green market solutions.
So if Kuhn's loop predicts the death of dwarf green market solutions as they are based on distorted market pricing that eventually leads the system to collapse as you agree, why you think your sustainable economic development solution is not tied to the same fate? Do you think that your solution is not based on dwarf green market thinking when the sustainable economic development model, environmentally friendly or not, can be shown to be a dwarf sustainability market.
As you know I appreciate your comments and I am not here to impose my ideas and I respect your ideas, but you need think a little bit more careful about your ideas and conflicting concepts you may be using as someone like me may be able to show them wrong.
As food for thoughts, I am sharing the following articles in good faith in case you have not seen them related some how with the nature of the relevant question here: Does the Thomas Kuhn's paradigm evolution loop predicts the future collapse of dwarf green markets?
Articles:
Muñoz, Lucio, 2024. Sustainability thoughts 194: How can we show that the sustainable development solutions to the socio-environmental sustainability problem created by traditional market thinking by 1987 are both partial and without clear priority solutions?, In: International Journal of Education Humanities and Social Science(IJEHSS), ISSN: 2582-0745, May-June, Vol. 7, Issue 3, Pp. 6-17, India.
Muñoz, Lucio, 2024. Sustainability thoughts 195: Understanding the road from sustainable development thinking to green market paradigm shift avoidance 1987-2022: What are the implications of this?, In: CEBEM-REDESMA Boletin, Año 18, Nº 6, La Paz, Bolivia.
Muñoz, Lucio, 2024. Sustainability thoughts 193: Does the current move from the period of green market paradigm shift avoidance 1987-2022 to formal circular economic thinking 2023-2024 make sense in terms of long-term environmental sustainability? If not, why not?, In: International Journal of Education Humanities and Social Science(IJEHSS), ISSN: 2582-0745, May-June, Vol. 7, Issue 3, Pp. 566-578, India.
Muñoz, Lucio, 2024. Sustainability thought 178: Environmental pollution management markets versus environmental pollution reduction markets: Which one is environmentally clean economy transition friendly? Why?, In: CEBEM-REDESMA Boletin, Año 18, Nº 7, La Paz, Bolivia.
Muñoz, Lucio, 2024. Sustainability thought 181: Dwarf green markets versus green markets: Which one is environmentally clean economy transition friendly? Why? In: Sumerianz Journal of Business Management and Marketing, ISSN(e): 2617-0175, ISSN(p): 2617-1724, Vol. 7, No. 3, Pp. 58-65.
Muñoz, Lucio, 2024. Sustainability thoughts 187: If markets were optimal in 1776, then where did the 1987 overpopulation problem come from? Can the dependency theory and the golden trojan paradigm theory explain this?, In: CEBEM-REDESMA Boletin, Año 18, Nº 7, La Paz, Bolivia.
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