Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T08:40:18.058Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - The search for socially sustainable development: conceptual and methodological issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2010

By
Jean-Luc Dubois
Edited by
Reiko Gotoh  and
Paul Dumouchel
Reiko Gotoh
Affiliation:
Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto
Paul Dumouchel
Affiliation:
Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto
Get access

Summary

Introduction

Interest in the concept of ‘socially sustainable development’ proceeds from two different lines of thought which became important in the 1990s. The first of these focuses on the idea of sustainable development, and the second on the issue of reducing poverty.

The idea of ‘sustainable development’ was widely publicized by the 1992 Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro. It is derived from the Brundtland report, ‘Our Common Future’, published a few years earlier. Development is said to be sustainable when it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (WCED 1987).

This implies that the process of development will improve the well-being of people now alive, while maintaining a sufficient level of resources – especially non-renewable resources, whether natural, social or human – to permit future generations to enjoy at least an equivalent standard of living. This issue is now viewed as a serious matter by many governments and civil agencies. It demands that we take into account not only the objectives and outcome of development, but also address the method and process by which development is achieved.

Several key decisions taken during the Earth Summit, including the launching of Agenda 21, recommend the implementation of measures to protect the environment at the regional, national and local levels. Agenda 21 also encourages the development of multidisciplinary research to analyze the interactions between the various dimensions of sustainable development.

Type
Chapter
Information
Against Injustice
The New Economics of Amartya Sen
 , pp. 275 - 294
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alkire, S. 2002. Valuing Freedoms: Sen's Capability Approach and Poverty Reduction, New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alkire, S. and Chirkov, V. 2006. ‘Measuring Agency: Testing a New Indicator in Kerala’, paper presented at ‘Freedom and Justice’, Human Development and Capability Association conference, 29 August–1 September 2006, Groningen, the Netherlands.
Aristotle, 1980. The Nicomachean Ethics, translated with an introduction by Ross, David, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ballet, J. and Bazin, D. (eds.) 2006. Positive Ethics in Economics, Praxiology: The International Annual of Practical Philosophy and Methodology, vol. XIV, London: Transaction Publishers.
Ballet, J., Dubois, J.-L. and Mahieu, F.-R. 2005. L'Autre Développement, le développement socialement soutenable, Paris: L'Harmattan.Google Scholar
Ballet, J., Dubois, J.-L. and Mahieu, F.-R. 2007. ‘Responsibility for Each Other's Freedom: Agency as the Source of Collective Capability’, Journal of Human Development, 8 (7): 185–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, G. 1974. ‘A Theory of Social Interaction’, Journal of Political Economy, 82 (6): 1062–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dubois, J.-L. 2003. ‘Food Security, Vulnerability and Social Sustainability’, Cahiers de l'IFAS, 3: 15–21.Google Scholar
Dubois, J.-L. 2006. ‘Approche par les capabilités et développement durable: La transmission intergénérationnelle des capabilités’, in Reboud, V. (ed.), Amartya Sen: un économiste du développement?, Paris: AFD, pp. 199–212.Google Scholar
Dubois, J.-L. and Mahieu, F.-R. 2002. ‘La dimension sociale du développement durable: lutte contre la pauvreté ou durabilité sociale?’, in Martin, J.-Y. (ed.), Développement durable? Doctrines, pratiques, évaluations, Paris: IRD, pp. 73–94.Google Scholar
Dubois, J.-L. and Rousseau, S. 2008. ‘Reinforcing Households’ Capabilities as a Way to Reduce Vulnerability and Prevent Poverty in Equitable Terms', in Comim, F., Qizilbash, M. and Alkire, S. (eds.), The Capability Approach: Concepts, Measures and Applications, Cambridge University Press, pp. 421–36.
Giovanola, B. 2005. ‘Personhood and Human Richness: Good and Happiness in the Capability Approach and Beyond’, Review of Social Economy, 63 (2): 249–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habermas, J. 1991. De l'éthique de la discussion, trans. Hunyadi, Mark, Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1992.Google Scholar
Jonas, H. 1984. The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age, University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kant, I. 1785. Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, trans. Beck, L. W., University of Chicago Press, 1950.Google Scholar
Levinas, E. 1983. Time and the Other, trans. Cohen, Richard A., Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Mahieu, F.-R. 1989. Fondements de la crise économique en Afrique, Paris: L'Harmattan.Google Scholar
Misrahi, R. 2003. Le sujet et son désir, Paris: Pleins Feux.Google Scholar
Mounier, E. 1961. Oeuvres d'Emmanuel Mounier, vols. I–IV, Paris: Éditions du Seuil.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. C. 2000. Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach, Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, M. C. 2006. Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Identity, Species Membership, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ricoeur, P. 1995. Le Juste, Paris: Esprit.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1982. ‘Equality of What?’, in Choice, Welfare and Measurement, Oxford: Blackwell; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 353–69.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1987. Commodities and Capabilities, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1997. On Economic Inequality, expanded edn with a substantial annex by Foster, J. E. and Sen, A., Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1999. Development as Freedom, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 2000. ‘The Ends and Means of Sustainability’, keynote address at the international conference on ‘Transition to Sustainability’, 15 May 2000, Tokyo.
Touraine, A. 2005. Un nouveau paradigme: Pour comprendre le monde d'aujourd'hui, Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
(, UndpDevelopment Programme, United Nations) 2005. Fifteen Years of Human Development Reports: 1990–2004, CD-ROM, New York: UNDP.Google Scholar
Watsuji, T. 1949. Rinrigaku, trans. Seisaku, Yamamoto and Carter, Robert E. as Watsuji Tetsur o's Rinrigak, with an introduction and interpretive essay by Carter, Robert E., Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996.Google Scholar
,Wced (World Commission On Environment, and Development) 1987. Our Common Future, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weber, M. 1930. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Yamawaki, N.,Kobayashi, M. and Ikemoto, Y. 2006. ‘Public Philosophy and Capability Approach for Sustainable Development: Towards a New Formulation’, paper presented at ‘Freedom and Justice’, Human Development and Capability Association conference, 29 August–1 September 2006, Groningen, the Netherlands.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×