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    The Concept of Sustainability

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    meutia inten
    The document discusses the concept of sustainability and the problems with defining it. It notes that sustainability is often interpreted as preserving societies and cultures, but that it is an ambiguous term linked to development. Development generally implies economic growth, but finite resources mean not all growth is sustainable. The document examines how sustainability is defined by organizations and scholars, but argues these definitions envision a steady state that modern societies may not be able to achieve. It concludes that sustainability implies resisting decline and renewing resources, not maintaining a fixed state, but there are limits to both preserving the status quo and perpetual growth.

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    The Concept of Sustainability

    Uploaded by

    meutia inten
    151 views2 pages
    The document discusses the concept of sustainability and the problems with defining it. It notes that sustainability is often interpreted as preserving societies and cultures, but that it is an ambiguous term linked to development. Development generally implies economic growth, but finite resources mean not all growth is sustainable. The document examines how sustainability is defined by organizations and scholars, but argues these definitions envision a steady state that modern societies may not be able to achieve. It concludes that sustainability implies resisting decline and renewing resources, not maintaining a fixed state, but there are limits to both preserving the status quo and perpetual growth.

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    THE CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABILITY

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    The document discusses the concept of sustainability and the problems with defining it. It notes that sustainability is often interpreted as preserving societies and cultures, but that it is an ambiguous term linked to development. Development generally implies economic growth, but finite resources mean not all growth is sustainable. The document examines how sustainability is defined by organizations and scholars, but argues these definitions envision a steady state that modern societies may not be able to achieve. It concludes that sustainability implies resisting decline and renewing resources, not maintaining a fixed state, but there are limits to both preserving the status quo and perpetual growth.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    151 views2 pages

    The Concept of Sustainability

    Uploaded by

    meutia inten
    The document discusses the concept of sustainability and the problems with defining it. It notes that sustainability is often interpreted as preserving societies and cultures, but that it is an ambiguous term linked to development. Development generally implies economic growth, but finite resources mean not all growth is sustainable. The document examines how sustainability is defined by organizations and scholars, but argues these definitions envision a steady state that modern societies may not be able to achieve. It concludes that sustainability implies resisting decline and renewing resources, not maintaining a fixed state, but there are limits to both preserving the status quo and perpetual growth.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 2

    THE CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABILITY: A CRITICAL APPROACH

    Lynton K. Caldwell"

    Although expressed in different ways, the goal of sustainability has most often
    been the physical preservation of human societies and their cultures, institutions, social
    orders and regimes. Cultural factors psychological, behavioral, and institutional have
    influenced the ways in which humans understand and implement their economic and
    environmental affairs and the need for sanative sustainable goals and practices. In the
    modern world (e.g. since AD 1600) science has been a powerful cognitive influence on
    perceptions of the environment. The consequences have been contradictory. Science
    perceived as a servant and generator of technological innovation has led to notable
    improvements in human life, but has also strongly reinforced the concept of "conquest
    of nature", which too often has resulted in degradation of the natural environment
    through exploitation by misapplied technologies. Science perceived as teacher opens the
    way to understanding how the world of nature works, but has been less successful in
    explaining human behavior. The sustainability of human society in the future depends
    upon the ability and willingness of humans to order their behavior and institutions toward
    maintaining ecological integrity in human relationships with earth. To this end, an
    informed and rational concept of sustainability needs to be internalized in the ethos and
    ethics of human society and applied critically to concepts of growth, development, and
    the environment.
    Ambiguity of the term "sustainability" allows for numerous and differing
    interpretations. (Brown, et al. 1987). Without an understanding of its several meanings,
    their differences and implications, the word risks becoming vacuous. During the latter
    years of the twentieth century the concept of sustainability has been linked to another
    ambiguous term- "development". What development means is best defined by what is
    done in its name. Most often "development" in the socio-political context, implies
    economic growth. Although there are attributions to physiological, cultural or ethical
    "development- the term most frequently implies "growth" - another concept of many
    meanings, e.g., material, qualitative, economic, exponential, intellectual, cyclical, self-
    renewing, malignant, experiential. In-so-far as development implies - even requires -
    some form or forms of continuing growth, the concept of sustainability becomes relevant.
    For example if socio-ecological growth depends upon continuous functioning of the life
    supporting systems of the natural environment- air, water, soil, and living organisms-
    then the concepts of growth and development require the modifier of sustainability. But

    "School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN


    47405.

    J. Lemons et al. (eds.), Ecological Sustainability and Integrity, 1-15.


    @ 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers.
    2 L.K. CALDWELL

    where the relevant parameters of life on earth are finite, not all forms of growth are
    indefinitely sustainable.
    In the absence of realistic achievable goals, the concept of sustainability offers
    the prospect of a continuing expansion of present economic and technological systems
    without serious regard to ultimate limitations, to the quality of life, or to the costs of
    maintenance. The World Commission on Environment and Development ( 1987) declared
    "a sustainable society to be one that meets the needs of the present without compromising
    the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." But who defines needs?
    Donella Meadows (1992) defines "a sustainable society as one that can persist over
    generations, one that is far-seeing enough, flexible enough, and wise enough not to
    undermine either its physical or its social systems of support." But there appears to be
    a conceptual problem following from these definitions. Each conceptualizes a sustainable
    society as having the characteristics of a steady or homeostatic state. Yet each definition
    implies and would seem to require a degree of foresight, coherence, and steadiness that
    is not generally characteristic of advanced developing societies today. Can modern
    society become sustainable?

    1. Problems of Definition

    Standing alone, unmodified, sustainabilityhas little meaning. When sustainability


    is linked to development, the meaning is modified because development implies action
    of some sort, and hence change. It appears, therefore, that sustainable development
    means sustaining a process, not a condition. Yet in some contexts "sustainability" is
    invoked to preserve a relative status quo or steady state condition - for example, of
    ancient forests, top soil, or endangered species. The concept of sustainability is thus as
    much preventative as conserving. There are limits to status quo sustainability just as
    there are limits to growth. Even the stars age and die, but new stars are born and the
    cosmos is sustained. On earth, the quality and tempo of change are the logical foci of
    the sustainability concept.
    In a world ever changing, even under natural circumstances, sustainability
    implies resistant action and the capacity for renewal not stasis. For example, in status
    quo environmental circumstances, sustainability signifies preservation of sanative
    conditions, self-correction, and prevention of institutional decay. In a sustainable
    developing living environment, sustainability is sought to direct the course of events so
    that the quality of life, if not improved, will at least not be diminished. Sustainability in
    a steady state, when achieved, might be less difficult to maintain than where the goal is
    sustaining perpetual material growth in as much as the steady state (whatever its level of
    quality) may be achievable through reactive maintenance (i.e., it is homeostatic) whereas
    exponential growth cannot go on forever. If quality of life is a goal, this may require
    undoing the damaging effects of past development. Public policy for sustainability, even
    when corrective, is directed toward future plans, projects, objectives and ambitions. But
    in a complex, dynamic world, outcomes can seldom be certain. Contention may
    therefore arise over the amount and kind of action that is desirable or sustainable, for
    how long, and to what presumed effect.

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