A balancing act between economic growth and sustainable development: Historical trajectory through the lens of development indicators

Abstract

The evolution of the development discourse is profoundly political. Despite a range of innovations the situation remains much the same, and has led over time to the dominance of the economic growth model. Whilst academic/ideological vigour, policy relevance and institutional support, together with intellectual independence, are essential; too radical an alternative approach would be dismissed by mainstream opinion, either by design or neglect. To survive and to remain influential, any alternative requires the mainstream to engage with it for political feasibility. The development discourse has thus evolved through a delicate balancing act, acknowledging a need for a cautiously optimistic outlook. By tracing changes in two approaches to development (basic needs and human development) and in two global development goals (millennium development goals and sustainable development goals) through their selection and use of indicators, this article explores both the explicit and the implicit power of the mainstream in the past and present alternatives.

Is it really paid for sustainable development? The economic significance of firms' green practice

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“…The study contributed the existing literature in the following three ways: First, the study confirmed the firms' sustainable development strategies both have positive effects (Hirai, 2022;Huan et al, 2022;Rafique et al, 2022) and negative effects (Antal & Van Den Bergh, 2016;Chetty et al, 2015;Hickel & Kallis, 2020) on their performances. Second, the study went on step further (Bauer et al, 2005;Othman, 2012) to prove that the economic benefits generated from the firms' sustainable development strategies could be explained by stochastic volatility, jump risk, short selling restrictions, and arbitrage risk effects.…”

“…Recent studies have presented some far-reaching insights from different perspectives and shed light on this issue. Some studies have examined the differences in performances by adapting the sustainable development strategies and found essential theoretical supports (Hirai, 2022;Schroeder et al, 2019). Some scholars have constructed new research frameworks or drawn on empirical studies to explore the positive effects of sustainable development (Allen et al, 2021;Huan et al, 2022;Rafique et al, 2022;Saboori & Mehrjerdi, 2022).…”

From sustainable development to resilience? (Dis)continuities in climate and development policy governance discourse

“…The simplest attempts to capture this discursive terrain distinguish between ‘weak sustainability’, which is characterised by the assumption that natural capital is infinitely substitutable with human capital and that technological innovation will solve all ecological problems; and ‘strong sustainability’, which is sceptical of both these claims (e.g. Ayres et al, 2001; Hirai, 2022; Neumayer, 2003). Other bipartite taxonomies include the juxtaposition of ‘anthropocentric’ and ‘ecocentric’ sustainability (e.g.…”

The sustainable development of mobility in the green transition: Renewable energy, local industrial chain, and battery recycling

“…Sustainable urban mobility requires the need to develop new indicators (Morfoulaki and Papathanasiou, 2021). Indicators make it possible to describe trajectories of sustainable development, identify appropriate policies, and measure performance (Alola et al, 2021; Hirai, 2022). Achieving carbon neutrality requires long‐term environmental strategies (Abbasi et al, 2021).…”