Author(s)

W. Timmermans

Abstract

The environmental problem demands drastic changes. There is a need for innovation. This paper is the first on a new project, that started in 2004, studying sustainable planning processes. The hypothesis is that innovations do not occur in traditional linear processes, but arise from crises in complex processes. In this research, projects are studied in which sustainable innovations have been realised. Interviews have been carried out to describe the planning processes. Redescriptions have been made to compare the process characteristics with the characteristics of unstable dynamic systems. From this research a first characterisation of different types of crises can be given. 1 Introduction Prigogine is at the forefront of a new science: the physics of unstable processes [14,15]. Unlike deterministic-mechanistic thinking

Keywords