Blackwell Reference Online

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The idea of sustainable development has, for several decades, held out the promise of reconciling the competing goals of economic growth and environmental preservation. The term proposes that economic growth should not be carried out without consideration of environmental and social concerns. This represents a departure from traditional development thinking that suggests that social and political stability will follow the achievement of a robust economy.However, sustainable development has been difficult to attain and measure. It has been constrained by diversity of interpretations and definitions of the concept, as well as its application. Further, in practice, critics have noted that sustainable development projects focus on local-level change and imply that the behavior of the poor is the key problem, not poverty and its causes. As a “new” approach to development, sustainable development, for many, goes no further than traditional paradigms by implying that the poor fail to safeguard the earth for future generations.Our common future, the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED 1987, 43), defined sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (→ Development Institutions). While sustainability typically refers to the more general goal of seeking ... log in or subscribe to read full text