Abstract
These chapter overviews most prominent theories of human values as seen from the point of view of psychology (S. Schwartz) and sociology (R. Inglehart). Exploring the social values at the macro level, it aims to explain differences in sustainable development performance in various countries by the predominant values in society. It highlights the importance of value differences in various stakeholder groups, paying attention to sustainability professionals, ethnic minorities, civil servants, lawyers, teachers and students. It was shown that intellectual autonomy according to Schwartz and emancipative values according to Inglehart are best predictors for peace index, life expectancy, Yale Environmental Performance index and recycling levels. Among the countries with the highest scores of indices mentioned are Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany; at the opposite end of the spectrum are Yemen, Nigeria and Ghana. The experience of Nordic countries in this light seems to be most relevant and is explored in more detail from the policy point of view.
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Shmeleva, I.A. (2017). Human Values and Sustainable Development. In: Shmelev, S. (eds) Green Economy Reader. Studies in Ecological Economics, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-38919-6_15
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