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

Cecilia M. V. B. Almeida, Biagio F. Giannetti, Feni Agostinho, Gengyuan Liu and Zhifeng Yang
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Cecilia M. V. B. Almeida: Laboratório de Produção e Meio Ambiente, Programa de Pos-Graduação em Engenharia de Produção, Universidade Paulista (UNIP), São Paulo 04026-002, Brazil
Biagio F. Giannetti: Laboratório de Produção e Meio Ambiente, Programa de Pos-Graduação em Engenharia de Produção, Universidade Paulista (UNIP), São Paulo 04026-002, Brazil
Feni Agostinho: Laboratório de Produção e Meio Ambiente, Programa de Pos-Graduação em Engenharia de Produção, Universidade Paulista (UNIP), São Paulo 04026-002, Brazil
Gengyuan Liu: School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100091, China
Zhifeng Yang: Institute of Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 23, 1-13

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: sustainable change; crisis; knowledge; alternative paradigms; cleaner production (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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