The household is the primary institution in which our solutions must function well. But the household must also function within a web of other institutions. We agree with Jim Woodhill:
“Many capacity development interventions have been driven by the needs of technological innovation rather than the needs of institutional innovation… environmental sustainability, social justice and coping with the massive demographic change the world is experiencing, hinge on rapid institutional transformation…. and the coupling between technological and institutional innovation” (Capacities for Institutional Innovation: A Complexity Perspective. IDS Bulletin Volume 41 Number 3 May 2010 pp 1, 48, 49). In unpublished notes on Woodhill Chris Blackmore (2010) remarks“ …… it is very useful to view sustainability as an emergent property of stakeholder interaction, and not a technical property of the ecosystem” (p 6, Ison et al.: Final Report http://slim.open.ac.uk).
One more remark by Woodhill (2010: 51): “Modern institutions have evolved to enable economic growth, technological progress and individual liberty. They were never designed to cope with an unsustainable relationship between humankind and the natural environment.”
