Thesis Abstract

Thesis Overview

INTRODUCTION

A collection of articles addressing the issue of whether the industrial model of human progress can be sustained in the long term. It asks what the social, political, economic and environmental implications as well as potential solutions to the problem of resource-intensive growth are.

In the early 1970s, public attention was first focused on the ecological limits to economic growth. A global dialogue about the need for sustainable development began in the 1980s. This collection of previously unpublished articles addresses in a comprehensive fashion the 1990s’ question of whether the industrial model of human progress can be sustained in the long run.

It analyzes the social, political, economic, and environmental implications as well as potential solutions to the problem of resource-intensive growth. Twenty experts consider matters on a global scale, focusing on institutional and value issues, international issues such as Global North vs. Global South, and the debate between growth and development.

The book
–addresses issues from a multidisciplinary perspective;
–suggests realistic responses to the problems of ecological limits;
–provides a variety of fresh alternatives to the non-sustainable growth model that now pervades public discourse;
–applies an evolutionary framework to an analysis of building a more sustainable world.