Description
Book Synopsis
This groundbreaking new work establishes links between sustainable development, needs, well-being, and the capabilities approach that is central to human development and the United Nations Development Programme. By challenging the role of people in sustainability policy, this collectionâs argument refocuses sustainable development on needs and makes it easier for people to relate positively to its core values. This exciting new book incites a whole new way of looking at sustainable development.
Even though the word âneedsâ is central to the most popular definition of sustainable development, the concepts of needs and capabilities remain within the debate on human development, without going further into intergenerational justice or environmental protection. The discussion of needs reaches non-academics in a more direct way than talking about abstract thresholds, substitutability and other issues dear to academic debate on sustainability. This collection links the questions of i
Trade Review
'The collection of essays in this volume represents a significant and admirable effort to explore these links between capabilities, needs, and well-being and sustainable development. There is a fundamental connection between the two, but for too long the discussions of these have generally been kept separate.' - Dale S. Rothman (Denver University)
'The audacity, personal involvement and academic rigor of the editors of this volume make it a reference work for researchers and policy advisors interested in sustainable development and human flourishing.' - Mònica Guillen-Royo (University of Bath)
'This book provides an informative first step to a hopefully very lively debate of relevance for sustainability science, developmental politics, ecological economics and (environmental) ethics alike." - Lieske Voget-Kleschin (University of Greifswald)
Table of Contents
Preface: The Death and Rebirth of Economics 1. Needs, Capabilities, and Quality of Life: Refocusing Sustainable Development 2. The Overshadowing of Needs 3. Sustainability as a Challenge to the Capability Approach 4. From Individual Well-Being to Sustainable Development: A Path Where Psychologists and Economist Meet 5. The Life-Chances Concept: A Sociological Perspective on Equity and Sustainable Development 6. Human Needs Frameworks and Their Contribution as Analytical Instruments in Sustainable Development Policy-Making 7. A Plea for the Self-Aware Sustainability Researcher: Learning from Business Transformation Processes for Transitions to Sustainable Development 8. Transition Towards Sustainable Development: Which Tensions Emerge? How To Deal With Them?
