5 - Experimental Adaptiveness in the Anthropocene

Summary

In the context of earth system governance today, experimentation is no longer merely a virtue but a basic survival skill.Administrative professionals – understood to include administrators national, international, and subnational, both governmental and nongovernmental, across the entire range of policy arenas – are in a position to engage in this best practice for learning from experience, perhaps to a greater degree than any other agents of governance. Protected by both their relative anonymity and their institutional affiliations, they enjoy the dual benefits of relative invisibility and administrative discretion.Administrative professionals can experiment with social and political arrangements that are not only adaptive but are also democratic and effective in reconciling humans to their environment.The volatility of their environments has meant that they face devolved responsibility in governance for both acquiring resources and achieving results.Administrative professionals succeed by being scavengers par excellence, such that approaches that work well anywhere are destined eventually to be tried everywhere.