The Collaborative Paradigm

Mainstream development and sustainability thinking in the past sixty years has largely gone through four phases. In the past sixty years thinking about (sustainable) development has been prone to some intense intellectual and practical turmoil. Especially in the first forty years, thereby, markets and firms were seen rather as part of the development problem than as part of its solution. Since the start of the 21st century however, awareness has grown that the complexity of the worlds sustainability and development problems, asks for joint approaches. Markets and firms, governments and NGOs, as well as firms and NGOs should work together to address those wicked problems.