While we changed one part to fit the others, the others changed and defeated our efforts. At fault is the western notion of progress that assumes that answers are out there waiting to be discovered by an increasingly clever science. It seems ironical to Norgaard that the prescription for dealing with the problems created by technology and social change is accelerated change of the same kind. Norgaard's antidote is a coevolutionary perspective. Nothing is exogenous, change is not deterministic, and there are no stable cause and effect relationships which are required for planning.
Nature is a social product, but societies are also a product ofnature.
When species evolve in response to changes in each other rather than a predetermined physical niche, all evolutionary direction is lost. Since all systems are interconnected no expert can know enough to plan effectively. In response to this some have taken the Hayekian approach of faith in the market to make the necessary links among atomized individuals. But Norgaard doesn't believe it and says community must be recognized again. Values can't be separated from facts, and values are the result of a social process.