Block 1 Defining Sustainability

What is ‘Sustainability’?

Where did it come from?

Is ‘Développement Durable‘ a good translation of the term?

__________________________________________________________________________

TASK.  Discussion.

What do I/we/you think’Sustainability’ is all about?

WHY?  Because we all make decisions based upon what we believe things to be rather than what they are. YOUR view is as valid as mine or the government’s…. but it is that view (whatever it is) that determines how we will act or not.  So what YOU believe sustainability is and might involve will determine your actions (and inactions) rather than ‘official’ statements and definitions.

Your task is to work in pairs (without doing research online on your phones and laptops!) and to develop your own definition in English based upon that which you think and really do understand and believe.  I am not looking for a ‘correct‘ answer, vaguely remembered from some lecture notes or a once-read article- I genuinely want to know what you think and believe!  I want to see a fully developed narrative defintion, not just keywords or bullet points!

NB.  I don’t mind if you characterise it even as something like ‘a worthy but unrealistic / unattainable target for global consumption reduction in line with a ‘fair’ sharing of resources available ……. etc’, for example: if that’s how you see it – then that’s how you see it!

TIP: good and comprehensive definitions go beyond the ‘WHAT’, to answer questions such as WHO, WHY, WHEN, WHERE and HOW!

We will then share these personal definitions in order to take a view as to whether we all share the same sort of vision and to develop a ‘Definitive Definition’ which incorporates the very best that we have all come up with and then look at what the official sources have to say in definition terms.  How do our definitions compare?

On the basis of the above, we will then consider whether

the term ‘Développement Durable’ a fair translation of ‘Sustainability’?

(Ils n’ont pas choisi ‘durabilité’ quand même.)

Some questions remain, however:

• When, where, why and how did the concept and the term of ‘sustainability’ lurch into the world’s consciousness? (and when and why did you ‘connect’ with it)
  
• Have we really ‘discovered’ the term lately or are we simply re-discovering something that communities around the world took for granted and understood full well for millennia? (TJ: Ab & NA Ind. Essentia Chief Seattle)
• Why, in the mid/late 1980s, did the United Nations charge a Commission to look into the matter of global resources utilisation?
  • What did they produce
  • what was the definition of Sustainability which they came up with?
  • What do you think of their definition?
  • According to the authors’ own definitions, upon what conditions is Sustainability feasible (technically possible?)
    • Cryptic Note for TJ: r v p gap / ri cos in planet’s ec means / L-T persp / beyond Friedmann.
  • Other issues:
    • insulation
    • intermediation
    • commoditisation
    • capitalism
    • profit motive