24 October 2024 – Since the 20th century, The Club of Rome, among others, has been raising the alarm about the harm that extractive and exploitative economic growth would cause to social and ecological systems. Looking at this year’s World Economic Forum’s global risk report, we can see that these impacts are becoming increasingly obvious and present. The 21st century is not just characterised by individual problems but by a complex web of interconnected issues such as wars, climate crises and food insecurity that worsen social tensions, poverty, and inequality.
The crises and its systemic nature
A certain framing of these crises and tensions has inspired a global shift towards sustainable development to the extent that it has become yet another trend of industrialisation (the so called “green growth”) within the same basic assumptions of what defines success. Within this framing we rely on the same mechanisms of dominance, scale, and growth to uplift humanity from the crisis. However, because of this, we have failed to activate the systemic shift required to address the core problem – we need to reinvent human development and prosperity to liberate ourselves from resource exploitation.
The impacts of corporate sustainability are especially egregious when you notice the cognitive dissonance caused by this addiction to material growth. For example, when an organisation is built to scale and grow, ownership becomes the main currency—ownership of research, technologies, and even beneficiaries. This creates unhelpful incentives. Professionals from all spheres fail to challenge the culture of dominance, thus failing to recognise the radical autonomy and agency of actors.
Understanding power to emerge from emergency
Sustainability professionals have started recognising the cognitive dissonances that are obvious to the communities they aim to serve. Such is the nature of power; it manifests in institutions that entrench beliefs and behaviours so that we cannot change, or change seems unimaginable. However, for those directly affected, the need to elevate their ambitions and transform their circumstances is evident and urgent. Self-liberation is critical.
Self-liberation involves achieving freedom and autonomy by overcoming external constraints and internal limitations. It should not be mistakenly interpreted as shifting the responsibility to change dominant systems onto those in crisis. Instead, it demands that incumbent institutions acknowledge and adapt their beliefs and norms, which are fundamentally incompatible with the desires and expectations of the people they serve. Mutual learning and evolution are imperative to achieving human development on a healthy planet.
Collaboration and solidarity for transformative action
To nurture this process, The Fifth Element (an initiative by the Club of Rome) has initiated learning partnerships between individuals and organisations across power spectrums (interdisciplinary, intergenerational, intercultural) to honestly address complex issues in development practice. With inspiring individuals who have begun the process of self-liberation, we recognise the ambitions and knowledge that have been largely ignored. With organisations and individuals from various sectors in corporate sustainability, we begin to recognise the norms that are incompatible with the ambitions of others.
However, great change comes not only from changing the relationships between actors but also from using that positive energy to build systems experiments where all parties can collaborate for different outcomes. Through international partnerships, The Fifth Element has systematically created the space for cross-sectorial innovation and solidarity, guided by leaders and communities that have liberated themselves and made room for the seemingly impossible.
