Friday, March 7, 2014

Published Article: Sustainability’s Inner Conflicts: From ‘Ecologism’ to ‘Ecological Modernization’

Bakari, M.E. (2014). Journal of Sustainable Development Studies 6(1), 1-28.

© Copyright 2014 the authors: 1

Mohamed El-Kamel Bakari *

* Department of English Language, Literature and Civilization, the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Humanities, the University of Manouba, Tunis, Tunisia.

Abstract:

Ever since its inception, the project of sustainable development has constituted a challenge to deeply entrenched political, economic, and social beliefs in modern societies. Now matured, the project seems to be highly incompatible with the predominant neoliberal capitalist economic system, constitutes a nuisance to the structure of global governance, and is a noticeably controversial issue in North-South politics. However, the project itself was born out of a conflict between two opposing needs – the need for continuous economic growth on the one hand, and the need to protect the environment and achieve intra-generational and intergenerational social equity, on the other. This article argues that reconciling the needs for economic growth with concerns for the environment has been a very intricate and thorny process, hence the controversy over sustainable development’s definition, aims, and feasibility. By categorizing, examining, and analyzing sustainable development’s inner conflicts, this articles aims at achieving a deeper understanding of today’s sustainability stalemate and potential ways to overcome it. A special focus is placed on the implications of the recent prominence of ecological modernization, especially in the developed countries, on the evolution and integrity sustainable development.

Keywords: sustainable development, inner conflicts, sustainability, ecological modernization, ecologism.

*Read the complete article here:  Journal of Sustainable Development Studies