SPSF 2024-4: Sustainability and Sustainable Development
Book 1. Thompson & Norris (2021)
Sustainability: What Everyone Needs to Know,, Oxford U Pr. https://amzn.to/3PXc31c
Chap. 5: Sustainable Development
What is development?
- Growth, expansion, or enlargement as an increase in welfare
- Difference between consumption and investment: Development occurs when the capacity for continuous generation of welfare is enhanced. (p.101)
- Welfare: How well a person/group is faring in life (health, mental outlook, meaningful choices, control over how their lives go, a sense of belonging...) - development as happiness, well-being...
- Capital: an investment increasing the capacity for producing welfare. .. Economicstss use the word depreciation as how capital decreases over time.
What limits the SD? - We can't continue producing the goods because the earth is finite and our needs won't last forever.
Is SD just equivalent to sus? - No, from the international definition and why it matters in a global context.
Book 3. Sachs, J.D. (2015)
The Age of Sustainable Development, Columbia Uni Pr https://amzn.to/2Sz5N2Z
Chap. 1: Introduction to Sustainable Development
- SD tries to make sense of the interactions of three complex systems: the world economy, the global society, and the Earth’s physical environment (p.2).
- The normative side of SD envisions four basic objectives of a good society: economic prosperity; social inclusion and cohesion; environmental sustainability; and good governance by major social actors, including governments and business (p.3).
- The definition of SD, Brundtland Comission (1987: 41)
development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland Commission, 1987:41)
Five kinds of concerns about the distribution of WB:
1) extreme poverty
2) inequality
3) social mobility
4) discrimination
5) social cohesion (p.10)
What is BAU for SD?
Chap. 2: An Unequal World
GDP per capita is really not a comprehensive measure of economic development, because there are many other important indicators of WB that it does not precisely capture, including the health and education of the population (p.45).
Urban-Rural Inequality: It is important to start by clarifying the definition of "urban." Interestingly, there is no official international definition of what it means to be an urban area (p.51).
Income Inequality Within Countries: The lowest inequality ... tends to be in western Europe and especially in Scandinavia, with a Gini of around 0.25. In comparison with Scandinavia, the US is shaded green (Fig. 2.5), as the US is quite unequal in income distribution, with a recent Gini of 0.45 (p.56).
Practicing SD means both understanding the nature and sources of inequality and setting the goal of a high degree of social inclusion in economic development (p.59).
Measuring WB: UNDP's Human Development Index.
Subjective WB: e.g. World Happiness Report, Social Capital (the quality of the social environment and community), physical and mental health play a very important role.
Convergence or Divergence?: a narrowing of the gap between a poor country and a richer country? The poorer country is becoming even poorer? ... One of the crucial goals of SD is that all of today's low-income countries... should make that transition successfully through convergence to at least middle-income status (p.67).
Japanese entry
