The concept of sustainable development: its origins and ambivalence

Abstract

A four-part examination of the concept of sustainable development: its relation to the major philosophies of history as cyclical or progressive; its contemporary articulation in two key texts (World Conservation Strategy, 1980; and Our Common Future, 1987; related ideas for the extension or altering of development; and some critical issues raised by the wide adoption of sustainable development as a new name for the common good. The thesis is that the strength and weakness of this concept rests in its ambivalent bridging of both pro-growth developmentist and no-growth environmentalist concerns. © 1995.