The search for socially sustainable development: conceptual and methodological issues (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Capability Approach: Ethics and socio-economic development
in J. Dydryk and L. Keleher (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Development Ethics, Routledge, 2019
Development processes are inherently normative. They always involve ethical judgments about what constitutes ‘good’ or ‘desirable’ change. Because ethical judgements are concerned about what should be done, laying bare the normative judgments at play, discussing what counts as development and how it can be assessed is key to designing, evaluating, and legitimising public policies. This chapter offers an overview of the capability approach, one of the most important conceptual frameworks that has contributed to this ethical debate, and compares it to other evaluative perspectives used in development policy. We discuss why a capability view of development provides the most compelling ethical framework to date for dealing with the practical and normative questions that development processes raise. We present the approach as an interdisciplinary evaluative framework which views concerns for wellbeing, equity, rights, agency and participation, freedom and justice as central to the theory and practice of development. The chapter concludes by highlighting some controversies within the capability approach and important new directions.
The Capability Approach (CA) and Sustainable Development (SD) share the same overarching goal: to afford a good life to all human beings. We understand that to be able to answer the principle sustainability question, what to sustain?, normative and descriptive elements are needed. The CA is understood as purely normative whereas SD is both normative and descriptive, highlighting the theoretical challenge of basing an SD-conception on the CA (1). We identify three descriptive SD-assumptions in need of entrance into the CA and show that only two of them have thus far been addressed (2). To show how the missing SD-assumption can gain entrance into the CA, we use the theoretical differentiation between theories of ideals and ideal/non-ideal theories. We interpret Martha Nussbaum’s version of the CA as a theory about the ideal of justice and Amartya Sen’s version as a non-ideal theory of justice (3). With this differentiation, we are able to find a point of connection for the missing SD-assumption by determining the valuableness of functionings in the context of SD by implementing so called ‘Management Rules of Resources’ (4). We conclude that by framing the SD-assumption in CA terms and focusing on functionings and introducing a way to substantiate the term ‘valuable’ in SD-terms, answering the what-question with a CA-based conception of SD becomes possible (5).
Mapping sustainable development in a capability perspective
Online: http://cfs. unipv. it/sen/papers/ …, 2003
The importance of the notion of sustainable development has been advocated, among others, by Amartya Sen. In Sen's view it is necessary to depart from the general strategy of defining sustainable development only in terms of fulfilment of needs and to use the broader perspective of enhancing human freedoms on a sustainable basis. The ultimate goal of this paper is to outline a possible operative map of sustainable development as intended in the capability approach.
Ethics and Sustainable Development
Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental, 2010
The objective of this article is to bring hermeneutic considerations and philosophies concerning ethics, economy and environment, with a specific focus on the relationship between Kant's categorical imperative and the issue of sustainable development. The economic perspective of Georgescu-Roegen has been considered, for this purpose. Although economy, ethics and biology constitute distinct fields of specialization, this work seeks to show reasons for which this perspective could be seen as an intersection between the three disciplines. The article concludes with the message of Georgescu-Roegan, held in his saying "minimal bioeconomic program" in accordance with the fundamental precepts of the Kantian ethics, in respect to the issue of sustainability.
Environment, justice and the capability approach
Ecological Economics, 2013
In recent years, several studies have attempted to combine the capabilities approach with sustainable development. However, critics have pointed out that although the capability approach takes the environment into account, it has its shortcomings for not being a complete ethical theory. Our article attempts to go beyond these criticisms, and show that the capabilities approach provides a good analytical framework for an environmental justice approach.
The Ethical Dimension of the Sustainable Development
2014
As sustainable development is defined as an ethical concept on economical, ecological, and social dimensions, the aim of this paper is to argue that the human capital has to be enriched with certain positive values, needed and defined as such according to the sustainable development principles. On the other hand, there must be made efforts at the society level in order to improve the social values of nowadays so that the potential sustainable development to became more real.
Policy-Making Considerations for Ethical and Sustainable Economic Development
Leaders of both private and public sector organizations play an important role in bringing about positive and necessary developments in society. This leadership is especially an important consideration for public sector policy-makers to look at the long-term with regards to their policy-making in economic development. Citizens of any society, but particularly an agrarian one, tend to depend on the availability of natural and local resources for their survival and independence. Furthermore, economic development is important for communities and societies to live in a sustainable manner using local resources in a prudent yet efficacious manner. This study looks at the importance of policy-making for economic progress; the study examines the influences on policy-making; and seeks to ascertain how local leaders can take a developmental role in creating and promoting sustainability approaches for citizens, particularly local farmers and consumers. The study, moreover, examines the role of ethics as a branch of philosophy on leadership and the policy-making decision process. The study treats both government and private sector business leaders. Suggestions and recommendations are provided to both types of leaders to help them make effective, moral, and sustainable policy decisions.
Combining the Capability Approach (CA) with Sustainable Development (SD) is a promising project that has gained much attention. Recently, scholars from both perspectives have worked on narrowing gaps between these development approaches, with a focus on the connection between the CA as a partial justice theory and SD as a concept embracing justice and ecological fragility and relative scarcity. We argue that to base an SD conception on the CA, the CA must be further developed. To provide the rationale for this claim, we begin by clarifying how we look upon the relation between SD and the CA and how we understand SD (1). We then argue for an integration of the natural dimension in the CA (2). By analyzing similarities of recent contributions integrating the natural dimension, we identify how the CA structure may be developed to include the recursive relation between the human and natural dimensions and especially to include the circumstances of justice relevant to SD (3). Finally, we argue that a new recursive and dynamic CA structure is related to the debate on criteria for ‘valuable’ in the term ‘valuable functionings’ and that this points to an expansion of the CA’s evaluative space (4).