THE COMPARISON OF THE CONVENTIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT MODEL

Abstract

Great ideas usually start out as rather simple ideas. In
social sciences, the ideas which impact the lives of the millions and
which direct policies must be available to all, not only to the elite.
Only in this way can they properly permeate institutions from the
global to the local level and become an integral part of human lives.
The model of sustainable development challenges the conventional
model of development. Namely, the conventional approaches simplify
development by observing it as global modernization modeled after
the example of industrialized, developed countries. Sustainability does
not simply require balancing, i.e. compromising between inherently
conflicting forces. It is rather a positive imperative which connects
social, economic, and ecological benefits. Sustainable development
advocates for the ethical position that the stock of natural resources
must be preserved for the future generations and that the value of all social benefits and costs, including the depletion of natural resources,
must be included in accounting systems for the development
performances to be properly measured. This paper covers a wide gap
between the theoretical interpretation of sustainable development and
the current situation in the world. The paper presents some critical
views which perceive sustainable development as an illusion, but also
gives arguments which claim that sustainable development has no
alternative.