What Are the Stimuli to Change to a Sustainable Post-COVID-19 Society?

The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted how inadequately prepared humanity is to manage global disasters. Conversely, this crisis also offers an exceptional opportunity to move towards a more equitable and sustainable future. This paper explores three stimuli that can lead people to the change towards sustainable Post-COVID-19 societies: crises, knowledge, and alternative paradigms. From a theoretical approach, the paper addresses the roles of each stimulus and the capacity they may have, individually or together, to encourage the debate about the relationship between environmental conditions and human crisis. This study contributes to the discussions on the importance of strategic transformations of the global consumption and production systems. It takes this unique opportunity to move towards a more sustainable future. Moreover, it urges that this transformation process be articulated with alternative paradigms that seek to go beyond inequalities, conflicts, imbalanced development, and ecological deterioration.

Automated summary

Through studying crisis, knowledge, and alternative paradigms as stimuli, this paper discusses the potential opportunities for transitioning towards a sustainable future following the COVID-19 crisis. It emphasizes the importance of strategic transformations of global consumption and production systems, and advocates for articulating this transformation process with alternative paradigms that seek to go beyond inequalities, conflicts, and ecological deterioration.