What can we learn from Thomas Kuhn on what happens when a group of scientists sets out to challenge the conventional scientific wisdom, in his 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions?
There are clear parallels between the paradigm shifts in science and those in political & economic thought. But when we come to think about transformations in politics & economics, the vested interests are likely to resist even more strongly than those in science, because they are likely to suffer economic loss as well as reputational damage. But more of that later.
Many of us recognise that we need fundamental changes to the way we live, and how we should produce our food and possessions. We need to do this, not only to address the climate emergency, but also to redress the wrongs of gender, class and racial domination over many centuries, both in the UK and the rest of the world. The idea of paradigm shift suggests a change in a considerable number of our fundamental assumptions. For a start I’d argue we need to at least stop believing that economic growth is essential, stop accepting that we humans are fundamentally competitive and selfish, and stop believing that the UK’s economy and the global trading system are fair.
Kuhn looks at scientific revolutions such as when Lamarck’s theory was replaced with Darwin’s theory of evolution; or Einstein’s theory of relativity superceded Newtonian physics. But perhaps the one most of us know most about is when Copernicus in 1543 showed that the earth revolved around the sun, in contravention to the theories of Ptolemy from the first century AD. For much of the intervening years it was positively dangerous to disagree with Ptolemy’s view of the world when supported by the Popes.
Kuhn argues that the process often goes something like this:
- One or more scientists point out anomalies in the current theory: Perhaps the moon didn’t appear exactly where the calculations said it should.
- Those in positions of authority belittle the observations, perhaps questioning their measurement techniques, or even adding some extra parts to the current theory to make it fit.
- Those, who sense something big is wrong, will continue their research to point out more and bigger anomalies; and will start to offer a new theory to explain what they’ve measured.
- Often it gets personal: the scientific establishment feel under threat and their personal reputation is at stake. They will ostracise and ridicule those who are pointing out the anomalies.
- But in the end, sometimes after many years, the new theory becomes accepted as being a better explanation of the way the world works.
This is the paradigm shift.
“It’s the same each time with progress. First they ignore you, then they say you’re mad, then dangerous, then there’s a pause and then you can’t find anyone who disagrees with you.”
Tony Benn – Inspiring British Politician
We can all clearly understand that the human population is living beyond the carrying capacity of the planet – more because of the consumption growth of the richer Western world, than by population growth in the rest of the world. For more on this checkout the Global Footprint Index. We’re destroying it faster and faster. Yet no government anywhere – for all their claims of understanding the climate emergency, and their protestations about how much they’re doing to fight it – has done anything to stop economic growth continuing.
But with a moment’s thought we can understand why this is. When growth falls, people become unemployed, taxation receipts fall, more and more people fall into poverty and there’s less and less state income to provide for them. Then governments are removed from office – whether in an election or through the overwhelming force of popular discontent. That’s the paradox of our current economic system: it has no answer to the predicament we face.
So what can we learn from Kuhn’s work? A few things, I believe:
- As the conventional wisdom becomes more damaged by anomalies and incontrovertible facts; those holding it are forced into belittling the critics and making more and more adaptations to their theory in order to fit the facts. (And perhaps they also indulge in ‘culture wars’ to divert attention from the fundamental issues – but this wasn’t one of Kuhn’s conclusions!).
- It may take many years before those maintaining the conventional wisdom get shifted from their positions of power, perhaps through old age and death; and they are replaced by a new generation which comes to power with different assumptions and mindsets.
- Change will not come about solely because the current economic system is widely believed to be failing. It will only come when a new system is shown to be both viable and better.
So what does this mean for us?
In our context people need to see a way to a whole new way of living that is not only more just and sustainable – but desirable too.
So shouldn’t our focus be to search the world for ways of living sustainably as part of nature, and those that lead to more equal, happier, lower stress and more fulfilling lives. And then to adapt and trial them in our local contexts? And to widely share the outcomes?
Here are a few I’ve found that are taking steps in this direction:
- the EcoVillage Network: a network of over 100 communities spread across the world, all sharing common themes. They say an ecovillage is an intentional, traditional or urban community that is consciously designed through locally owned participatory processes in all four dimensions of sustainability (social, culture, ecology and economy) to regenerate social and natural environments.
- Cooperation Jackson: a comprehensive project for sustainable community development, economic democracy, and community ownership in Jackson, Mississippi.
- Mondragon Cooperatives in the Basque area of Spain: a long standing network of worker-owned co-ops in finance, industry, retail and education & training.
- The Preston Model: the strategy of community wealth-building practised in Lancashire.
- Ross Jackson’s Gaian World Order: a detailed proposal for a new set of global institutions, and a ‘breakaway strategy’ where a group of nation states put this into practice with support from many people around the world. And over time this group would grow. See this for a bit more on the institutions.
Perhaps there are more? If you know of any please tell us all with a comment here!
Understanding the concept of Emergence is powerful too, because it show the way bottom up change can happen when long term trends create a new space.
So here’s the challenge: Can we – in our local neighborhoods – build something like these?
“You Brits, should stop thinking of yourselves as thought leaders. Instead you should look for the important things happening around the rest of the world, and take your lead from them.”
Vijay Prashad – historian, journalist, commentator, and Marxist intellectual
“In order to change an existing paradigm you do not struggle to try and change the problematic model. You create a new model and make the old one obsolete.”
Buckminster Fuller – architect, systems theorist, author, designer, and inventor
Further Exploration
- La Via Campesina: an international movement bringing together millions of peasants, small and medium size farmers, landless people, rural women and youth, indigenous people, migrants and agricultural workers from around the world.
- DAWN: feminists from the South working for gender, economic and ecological justice, and sustainable and democratic development.
- Progressive International: we unite, organise, and mobilise progressive forces behind a shared vision of a world transformed.
- Focus on the Global South: an activist think tank in Asia providing analysis and building alternatives for just social, economic and political change.