A Paradigm for a Paradigm

 In this complicated world we currently live in, filled with global markets, political corruption, corporate greed, and rampant severe poverty, it is hard to distinguish what systems will work and what systems will not work in the future. A leading factor to some of the economic and societal woes the world has been experiencing of late is the concept of paradigms. A paradigm is a worldview underlying the theories and methodology of a particular scientific subject. So how can societies find a paradigm that benefits the majority and harms no one (ideally)? This is the question philosophers have posed for a millennium to no avail. Until today previous leaders have not considered the shifts in paradigms as probable logical solutions to the flawed systems scattered throughout different societies. To discuss this concept further we must first define some key terms that will help us establish some different paradigms that have already been implemented throughout different societies around the world.

Regression Analysis: the use of regression to make quantitative predictions of one variable from the values of another.

Boundary Vegetation: consists of the area of vegetation that creates a boundary between ecosystems.

Intangible Costs: an unquantifiable cost relating to an identifiable source. Intangible costs represent a variety of expenses such as losses in productivity, customer goodwill or drops in employee morale.

Intangible Benefits: are advantages or favors that can be offered by one person to another. An example would be a research organization asking someone to volunteer time and expertise for a project in exchange for prestige by affiliation. 

Induced-Adoption Paradigm: the idea of the induced-adoption of a certain paradigm to mitigate change within a system.

Familial Influence: the influence of family on the decision making process towards investors.

 Now that we have defined the key terms relating to shifting paradigms in societies we can begin to discuss the different areas in which societies can establish shifts in paradigms. From the dissertation by Bradley Tyndall the differences between a diffusion of innovation paradigm and an induced-adoption paradigm in the context of the use of Grevillea in Kenya is a great example of shifting paradigms in an emerging market for societies. The difference is, diffusion of innovation paradigms include the action of innovative systems being dissolved among a society through a certain paradigm over time, and induced-adoption paradigms are almost forced through the actions of either economic collapse of environmental collapse, which provides limited innovation. So the use of the Grevillea tree in Kenya is based on a diffused innovation paradigm, because over time the adoption of the Grevillea tree became diffused throughout Kenya as farmers found them to be indispensable.

 With the diffused innovation paradigm came the realization of the intangible costs and benefits of the Grevillea tree. These intangible costs and benefits played a major role in the process of diffusing the innovation of planting the trees on farms to then practice agroforestry. The intangible benefits of planting the Grevillea tree were extremely valuable, like marking property boundaries, harvesting the branches, and the expedient growing rate all contributed to the diffused innovation of planting the Grevillea tree with the shift in paradigms.

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Onward,

Hayden van Andel