Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ren Kemp
UNU-MERIT Phd Programme Innovation Studies and Development (2006-2007)
Harris
Prior to the second half of the twentieth century, the idea of development as we know it today barely existed Economic growth became the original development model, asking for structural adjustment in developing countries But such policies failed to provide basic needs to all and created many problems in themselves This led to the notion of SD
Sustainable development
Was the central term of the WCED (1987) report Our common future Sustainable development came to be formulated as a different kind of growth, one that is not harmful to the environment and brings wealth to people all over the world In this meaning sustainable development is about conservation rather than preservation
Principle-based approaches
Non-declining natural capital (daly) or nondeclining welfare (Solow) Avoiding over-exploitation of renewable resource systems, maintenance of biodiversity, atmospheric stability Distributional equity, adequate provision of social services Political accountability and participation
Gibsons principles of SD
Human-ecological systems integrity: Build human-ecological relations to maintain the integrity of biophysical systems in order to maintain the irreplaceable life support functions upon which human well-being depends. Sufficiency and opportunity: Ensure that everyone has enough for a decent life and that everyone has opportunities to seek improvements in ways that do not compromise future generations' possibilities for sufficiency and opportunity. Equity: Ensure that sufficiency and effective choices for all are pursued in ways that reduce dangerous gaps in sufficiency and opportunity (and health, security, social recognition, political influence, etc.) between the rich and the poor. Efficiency and throughput reduction: Provide a larger base for ensuring sustainable livelihoods for all which reducing threats to the long term integrity of socio-economic systems by avoiding waste and reducing overall material and energy use per unit of benefit. Democracy and civility: Build our capacity to apply sustainability principles through a better informed and better integrated package of administrative, market, customary and personal decision making practices. Precaution: Respect uncertainty, avoid even poorly understood risks of serious or irreversible damage to the foundations for sustainability, design for surprise and manage for adaptation.
My own view
Is to let communities define SD (based on their values, moral positions, informed by understandings afforded by science about effects and consequences) To have environmental policies and other sectoral policies (education, science, etc.) in the pursuit of SD I am not against official sustainability concerns and targets, laid down in sustainability strategies at the national or local level, but a too narrow range of goals may act as a straightjacket. When used there should be mechanisms to
Organic Growth Silent Spring Limits to Growth Sustainable Growth Qualitative Growth Sustainable Development
Anticipatory Democracy
Source: Mesarovic
SD helps us reflect upon what we want accepting that our wants are varied and conflicting It is a core element of a reflective society which is conscious about risks, system-wide effects (externalities) in which governance modes are geared towards continued learning
The perspective of transition management helps societies to work towards alternative systems, in a reflexive manner, through the exploration of multiple paths and strategically chosen experiments and topdown instrument choices fostering learning at different levels. It helps to work towards a sustainability transition even when no one knows what a sustainable society would actually look like and the very idea of achieving sustainability is illusory
Possible questions
Does the notion of SD have value? Can you work with it? Should there be a common definition? Is sustainability a non-scientific concept (as Robinson says)? Can the sustainability of a project or instrument be assessed? What role for innovation? Does it make sense to talk about sustainable technologies?