The Sustainable Development Theory A Critical Approach Volume 2

This book explores the present conflictual relationship between the economy, the environment, and society. The current mainstream economic model is analysed from the perspective of the founding economists to review its suitability to tackle issues of sustainable development. The problems of redistribution and social justice are debated at length; alongside those concerning the giant state, degrowth, and a vision of sustainability that is founded on the idea of a self-regulating free market economy. Business cycle sustainability, anti-crisis therapy, technological unemployment, the natural rate of interest, and the Bruntland matrix are also examined. This book aims to present a holistic approach to sustainable development where social, ecological, and economic components are balanced. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in this topic.

This book argues that the theory of sustainable development lost some of its rigor because of two main reasons. The first manifests itself as an inflation of concepts that hampers the correct understanding of sustainability’s essence. The second one consists of a departure from the traditional scientific sources of the classicists and, in part, neoclassicists. Exploiting relevant areas of their works, the authors outline the theoretical framework necessary to promote a healthy version of sustainability. Of utmost interest prove to be areas such as: the formation process of natural prices and natural rate of interest; placing growth before employment and placing production before distribution, consumption, and social justice. The main idea of the book consists of a call for breaking away from the impure forms of the theory of sustainable development and its reconstruction through the reconciliation with the laws of healthy growth as they are highlighted in the works of the founders. The authors make the case for an approach to sustainable development that is holistic, macroeconomic, and institutionalist, where social, ecological, and economic components are reconciled. This work presents a fresh perspective in the context of current works on sustainability, serving as an accessible research resource and public policy decision guide.

While sustainability has become a buzzword in discussions about the environment and development, work on theories of sustainable development has received much less attention. However, theory is vital as understanding the origins and development of the concept is the key to achieving successful implementation of sustainability. This book offers an interdisciplinary collection of research articles on the theories of sustainable development, drawing on a wide range of subjects including history, politics, governance, complex systems, economics and philosophy. It advocates viewing sustainable development not only as the establishment of a permanent, globally practicable and future-capable mode of life and economics, but as a complex array of problems involving a wide range of social-scientific and humanistic disciplines. This innovative approach means that the book is oriented toward current problems, not toward the established academic boundaries, and it draws out lessons that are relevant for those studying and working in sustainability across the world. This book will be of great interest to researchers and students of sustainable development and environmental politics, as well as practitioners working with sustainable development in politics, business, administration, and civil society organizations.

This volume focuses on the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), education, to look at sustainability from various angles with the purpose of challenging preconceptions about what sustainable education might entail and how it should be conducted. To this end, the book assembles scholars from various research fields and disciplines, who are willing to be at the cutting edge regarding sustainability and education on all levels with students in the ages of 6-15. Through this approach, the text points towards a “wild pedagogy” in line with post-sustainable thinking. This involves agency and the role of nature itself as a co-educator, and promotes cultural changes, and explorative processes of finding “the wild” – the unknown, and complexity in nature – and thus of challenging the human need for control. This approach is also, in line with the 2030 Agenda, an attempt to move from advocating predetermined behavioural change to embracing a pluralistic perspective on sustainability, based on holistic views on education. Such views include curiosity, wonderment, compassion and agency as guiding lights. The book is structured into three sections, based on three interrelated strands. These strands are, in various ways, dependent on one another and further engaged with bringing education theory and practice together. These strands are 1) Belonging and sensing, 2) Critical thinking, social justice and action competence, and 3) Creating hope in a vanishing world. These strands aim to increase our access to and understanding of the ways in which sustainability can be integrated into education and why. The purpose of the text is to encourage educators of all kinds and levels, as well as scholars in different fields, to explore new perspectives on education for sustainable development. The book examines probes in diverse academic fields and focuses on how to combine different approaches and content, and therefore everyone interested in interdisciplinary and cross-curricular teaching and learning should find this work enlightening.

Principles of Sustainable Development is the component of Encyclopedia of Development and Economic Sciences in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. Sustainable Development is a term of differing definitions. Standing alone, the term is abstract and ambiguous. The meaning most often cited is that adopted by the World Commission on Environment and Development: meeting today’s true needs and opportunities without jeopardizing the integrity of the planetary life-support base – the environment – and diminishing its ability to provide for needs, opportunities, and quality of life in the future. This definition may serve as a general principle, but for a guide to action its components sustainability and development must be given substance: what is to be sustained and what developed? Is development essentially economic or material growth, and is sustainability mostly a means to keep economic growth growing? Consequently, should development represent means toward ecologically sustainable ends? The concept of ecological sustainability has been advanced as a restriction on economic development. It follows therefore that principles of sustainable development depend upon how the term is understood and how it is put into practice. Even so the definition of the World Commission on Environment and Development, given the adequate definition of variable needs, provides the most reliable principle for testing the qualitative and ecological sustainability of development proposals. The Theme on Principles of Sustainable Development, in three volumes, deals with the diversity of points of view on this complex subject. These three volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.

A New World-System: From Chaos to Sustainability examines the present crisis in the social and ecological environment that is producing profound, potentially catastrophic challenges to the planet and humanity and outlines a process for moving forward to address these critical issues. This book is a cautionary interpretation of the present and vision for the future. Unlike other books on this or allied subjects that are focused singularly, Part 1 surveys the five major threats facing humanity today: climate change, inequality and poverty, new technologies, migration, and globalization. It approaches the challenge of integrating these phenomena into a global picture from a systems perspective rather than taking a purely reductionist approach to understanding what is occurring in the world today. Part 2 moves from identifying the problems to solving them, with chapters examining the ability of the present world-system to address these issues and outlining a process for action. The book concludes by discussing what could follow capitalism as a social organizing strategy and, perhaps more importantly, the consequences to the planet if we do not construct a new world-system. This book is essential reading for students and scholars of sustainable development, climate change, environmental studies, rural and urban planning, environmental psychology, political economy, sociology, social policy, leisure studies, and environmental politics. More broadly, it is a vital resource for all those interested in building a sustainable society.

This Handbook gives a comprehensive, international and cutting-edge overview of Sustainable Development. It integrates the key imperatives of sustainable development, namely institutional, environmental, social and economic, and calls for greater participation, social cohesion, justice and democracy as well as limited throughput of materials and energy. The nature of sustainable development and the book’s theorization of the concept underline the need for interdisciplinarity in the discourse as exemplified in each chapter of this volume. The Handbook employs a critical framework that problematises the concept of sustainable development and the struggle between discursivity and control that has characterised the debate. It provides original contributions from international experts coming from a variety of disciplines and regions, including the Global South. Comprehensive in scope, it covers, amongst other areas: Sustainable architecture and design Biodiversity Sustainable business Climate change Conservation Sustainable consumption De-growth Disaster management Eco-system services Education Environmental justice Food and sustainable development Governance Gender Health Indicators for sustainable development Indigenous perspectives Urban transport The Handbook offers researchers and students in the field of sustainable development invaluable insights into a contested concept and the alternative worldviews that it has fostered.

The promotion of sustainable development opens up the debates surrounding our relationship with the natural world, what constitutes social progress, and the character of development in the present and into the future. Answering the need for an introductory, comprehensive, yet critical book that explores the challenges involved in the implementation of sustainable development, this revealing text investigates this subject across different socio-political and economic contexts. It combines an examination of the institutional engagement with sustainable development at a global level, with an empirically informed discussion on challenges facing high consumption societies, economies in transition and third world countries in their efforts to achieve sustainable development. Recognizing that promoting sustainable development is a quintessentially global task, the book focuses on the authoritative Brundtland formulation of sustainable development and the role of the United Nations Summits in promoting this vision. The empirical focus of the book is complemented by strong conceptual discussions as sustainable development is explored as part of new efforts, albeit tentative, to integrate environmental, economic and (more recently) social considerations into a new development paradigm. Providing an accessible, up-to-date and comprehensive treatment of the issues surrounding the promotion of sustainable development, this unique, internationally-focused book combines a strong conceptual analysis, with wide ranging empirical focus and a wealth of case material. Including summary points and suggestions for further reading, as well as web resources and an extensive bibliography, it is ideal for students, scholars and researchers in the fields of environmental sciences, politics, sociology and development studies.