Published Article: Sustainable Development in a Global Context: A Success or a Nuisance?

Bakari, M. E. K. (2015). New Global Studies 9(1), 27–56.

© Copyright 2015 the authors: 1

Mohamed El-Kamel Bakari *

* PhD in American Studies from the University of Manouba, Tunis, Tunisia, now seconded to King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, KSA.

Abstract:

This article argues that the evolution of, and challenges to, sustainable development cannot be understood completely outside its contemporary global context, consisting mainly of three interconnected spheres, i.e., the global governance system, the North-South debate, and global trade liberalization. As the boundaries of these three spheres get more and more blurred in a context of an intensifying globalization, the project of sustainable development is very often faced with obstacles that set back its evolution and might very well bring it to a halt. Above all, sustainable development is now caught in the crossfire between the push for exponential economic growth, on the one hand, and a compelling need to reverse catastrophic ecological threats and social exigencies, on the other. More often than not, the current structure and scope of global governance constitutes more of a hindrance than a help to the emerging paradigm of sustainable development. Accordingly, this article seeks to pinpoint the different challenges to the implementation of sustainable development in the field of global governance and to discuss to what extent these challenges are inherent in the structure and scope of this system. In a similar vein, this article examines and discusses the challenges to sustainability within two other highly interrelated spheres, namely global trade and the North-South politics. With this end in view, a special focus is placed throughout this paper on the interconnectedness of, and overlap between, these three global spheres and the determinant role played by the major actors therein.

Keywords: sustainable development; global governance system; global trade; North-South divide

Citation Information: New Global Studies. Volume 9, Issue 1, Pages 27–56, ISSN (Online) 1940-0004, ISSN (Print) 2194-6566, DOI: 10.1515/ngs-2014-0003, March 2015

Read the article in New Global Studies Journal

Published Article: Sustainability and Contemporary Man-Nature Divide: Aspects of Conflict, Alienation, and Beyond

Bakari, M. E. (2014). Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development

13(1), 125-146.

© Copyright 2014, the authors: 1

Mohamed El-Kamel Bakari *

*(PhD in American Studies), University of Mannouba, and a published researcher in Globalization and Sustainable Development Studies.

Abstract

The rise of modern capitalism, which is based largely on Enlightenment thinking and the primacy of exponential economic growth, has usually been considered the starting point of environmental degradation and the abuse of nature. Post-industrial societies, therefore, have been characterized by a disturbed environment-society relationship manifesting itself as ecological disasters as well as the prevailing instrumental view of nature under the current neoliberal capitalist paradigm of development. Using this framework, this article aims to discuss whether or not the current environment-society relationship is wholly at odds with the holistic view of nature within the sustainability discourse. Some important features of globalization, such as ‘time-space distanciation,’ rising ‘corporatism,’ and ‘global consumerism’, are also relevant to this discussion. Special emphasis is placed on the increasingly conspicuous aspects of human alienation from nature within modern societies as well as the concomitant social and cultural dislocations that the lingering Man-Nature divide has engendered. Ultimately, the potential of new initiatives to bridge this divide and promote sustainability is highlighted and research questions are thrown up for further scholarly investigation.

Keywords: Sustainability, sustainable development, consumerism, man-nature divide, alienation, ecologism.

Article's official link: 

http://www.consiliencejournal.org/index.php/consilience/article/viewArticle/380