The Concept of Sustainability: A Critical Approach

Abstract

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