Political and Ethical Theory and Sustainable Development

Описание: International Summer School / www.let-group.com
ENVIRONMENTAL AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
2006

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Dr. John Barry

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Sustainable development is more than a 'technical' issue, although it is often presented as such. Sustainable development as a concept and policy orientation has normative, ethical and philosophical dimensions which need to be explored in order to understand it as well as to develop one's own sense of what it means. These meanings of sustainable development can range from 'business as usual', 'weak' or 'narrowly environmental' versions which seek to enhance resource productivity and lower pollution, but do not examine or challenge the underlying political and economic structures of capitalist development; to more radical versions which see sustainable development as a commitment to live in a different type of society which includes commitments to citizen empowerment, democratisation and decentralisation of the state, greater regulation of private enterprise and a commitment to lowering socio-economic inequalities and achieving global justice.

At the ethical level, sustainable development includes debates about obligations to new vulnerable groups, namely 1) future generations 2) non-nationals and 3) the non-human world, alongside commitments of justice to national communities and fellow citizens. In all three cases there are ethical and political issues to be discussed - not least the pressing issue of how we can develop policies and establish institutions to discharge obligations to these vulnerable communities. Other ethical dimensions of sustainable development involve the issue of technological change and the ethical and political regulation of such change. For example, if biotechnology and genetically engineered crops (and animals) can be environmentally sustainable, does this present any political or ethical problems in terms of sustainable development?

In summary, this lecture will outline the reasons why 'sustainable development' is not an 'ethical or political free zone', but that sustainable development (unlike narrow conceptions of 'resource efficiency and management) is a deeply ethical and political project, that is as much about philosophy as it is about the physical sciences, and that this interdisciplinarity is something that needs always to be made central to discussions of 'sustainable development'.

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Producer: Matjaž Lobnik
Piktorama productions