Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 3
Sustainability
Becky Mansfi eld
Introduction
'Sustainability' is wildly popular as a way of thinking about how to simultaneously
meet the needs of people and the environment by enhancing human well-being
without undermining ecological integrity. Since it came into prominence in the
1980s, debate about sustainability has underscored the political nature of conserva-
tion, economic development, human well-being, and links among them. Sustain-
ability also highlights the political nature of socio-ecological processes that produce
environmental degradation, poverty, and injustice - in short, the political nature
of
un
sustainability. At the same time, it is striking the extent to which politics -
relations of power - have been written out of the vast majority of discussions about
sustainability. While most will recognise that discussion about sustainability is itself
contentious and therefore political, the orthodox view is that achieving sustainabil-
ity is a technical issue. According to this orthodox perspective, all that is needed is
better knowledge, incentives, and technology. This orthodoxy, however, ignores
relations of power that create problems and impede solutions, and ignores ways
'sustainability', in its attempt to solve problems while avoiding politics, is itself a
political project.
This chapter identifi es several ways in which sustainability is political. First, in
the shallowest sense, sustainability is political because it is the outcome of heated
debate, much of it in the formal policy arena. Second, sustainability research and
policy addresses itself to real-world processes that are always political in that they
are shaped, at least in part, by relations of power. The political nature of these
processes must be understood and addressed. Third, the concept of sustainability is
inherently political because it is normative; it fundamentally involves value-laden
choices. Finally, the current usage of sustainability in many academic and policy
circles hides the latter two forms of politics by making sustainability appear to be
technical. This chapter argues that this retreat from politics is a form of hidden
politics.
The fi rst section provides an overview of the trajectory of the global politics of
sustainability, focusing on convergence between sustainability and neoliberalism in
