Sustainable development: mapping different approaches

Abstract

Sustainable development, although a widely used phrase and idea, has many different meanings and therefore provokes many different responses. In broad terms, the concept of sustainable development is an attempt to combine growing concerns about a range of environmental issues with socio-economic issues. To aid understanding of these different policies this paper presents a classification and mapping of different trends of thought on sustainable development, their political and policy frameworks and their attitudes towards change and means of change. Sustainable development has the potential to address fundamental challenges for humanity, now and into the future.However, to do this, it needs more clarity of meaning, concentrating on sustainable livelihoods and well-being rather than well-having, and long term environmental sustainability, which requires a strong basis in principles that link the social and environmental to human equity. 3 Sustainable Development: Mapping Different Approaches Sustainable Development: A Challenging and Contested ConceptThe widespread rise of interest in, and support for, the concept of sustainable development is potentially an important shift in understanding relationships of humanity with nature and between people. It is in contrast to the dominant outlook of the last couple of hundred years, especially in the "North", that has been based on the view of the separation of the environment from socio-economic issues.For most of the last couple of hundred years the environment has been largely seen as external to humanity, mostly to be used and exploited, with a few special areas preserved as wilderness or parks. Environmental problems were viewed mainly as local. On the whole the relationship between people and the environment was conceived as humanity"s triumph over nature. This Promethean view (Dryzeck, 1997) was that human knowledge and technology could overcome all obstacles including natural and environmental. This view was linked with the development of capitalism, the industrial revolution and modern science. As Bacon, one of the founders of modern science put it "The world is made for man, not man for the world". Environmental management and concern amongst most businesses and governments, apart from local problems and wilderness conservation, was at best based on natural resource management. A key example was the ideas of 4 Pinchot in the USA (Dryzeck, 1997) which recognised that humans do need natural resources and that these resources should be managed, rather than rapidly exploited, in order to ensure maximum long-term use.

Transition Thinking Incorporated: Towards a New Discussion Framework on Sustainable Urban Projects

“…Hopwood et al [44] have mapped a broad range of specific conceptual frameworks in relation to sustainable development by using only an ecological and a social dimension. Based on Rees they came up with three change strategies [45]: "status quo", "reform" and "transformation".…”

The Imperatives of Sustainable Development

“…Furthermore, by attempting to cover all that is good and desirable in society, the SDGs have ended up as vague, weak, or meaningless (Hopwood et al, 2005;Stafford-Smith, 2014;Stokstad, 2015). First, they do not distinguish between what we regard to be primary and 2 secondary goals.…”

Differences in development levels of urban gminas in the Warmińsko-Mazurskie voivodship in view of the main components of sustainable development

“…Sustainable development promotes the rational use of natural resources without compromising the ability of future generations to satisfy their needs (Hopwood et al, 2005;Pawlewicz, Pawlewicz, 2011). The term sustainability as used here refers to a particular relationship between human and environmental systems -one that ensures meeting human needs in the long term (Alberti, 1996).…”