10.2190/VL9D-W5UJ-QPY8-RLNJ VL9DW5UJQPY8RLNJ 1 Evolution of Regional Socio-Economic System Toward "Islands of Sustainability" 221 240 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 VL9DW5UJQPY8RLNJ.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=VL9DW5UJQPY8RLNJ 3 Heinz Peter Wallner Michael Narodoslawsky STENUM GmbH Research Company for Materials, Energy and the Environment, Graz, Austria This article investigates the transition process from the unsustainable to the sustainable socio-economic system. It is assumed that this transition process can be characterized as an evolutionary process. In order to build a bridge from biological evolution to sustainable development the fields of complexity and entropic development are investigated. Furthermore the article emphasizes that sustainable development will most probably be introduced at the local level first. These point-like sustainable systems are defined as Islands of Sustainability (IOS). IOS are characterized as "innovative disturbances" able to jeopardize the structural stability of the unsustainable system, and hence, able to introduce wider sustainable development. It is argued that the development of IOS and furthermore the transition toward wider sustainable development is connected to the state of the ongoing paradigm change from the mechanistic to the holistic (synergetic, network) paradigm.

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