 Reflections on “Actually Existing Sustainability”Timothy W. Luke Chapter Chapter 4 in Justice, Sustainability, and Security, 2013, pp 85-107 from Palgrave Macmillan Abstract: Abstract This chapter is a cautiously critical assessment of “sustainability.” The topic is timely, and appropriate here, because this idea—and its many associated practices—are quite highly regarded today, as this volume on Global Ethics for the 21st Century illustrates. This chapter will discuss the inherent contradictions of sustainability, and then illustrate how this idea has spread with greater economic growth. It then explores the different conflicted understandings of sustainability over time and in different settings. Finally, it concludes that ecological sustainability is about upholding economic development in most contemporary policy arenas. The thesis is relatively simple: irony and contradiction are characteristic qualities of all formal diplomatic agendas and hard-won policy designs to implement ethical change. What might appear as advances in global ethics to make progress toward developing more responsible paths toward sustainability also can serve, in large part, misleading narratives for sustaining older irresponsible developments. Keywords: Sustainability Science; Climate Safety; Environmental Crisis; Rapid Climate Change; Global Ethic (search for similar items in EconPapers) There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-32294-4_4 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan |
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