The sustainability debate: Idealism versus conformism—the controversy over economic growth

Abstract

Since the publication of Our Common Future in 1987, scientists have struggled with the concept of sustainability and many definitions are now in existence. However, one can differentiate between a much smaller series of themes. Working from these definitions, we focus on six such themes. We will furthermore show that these themes are the battleground for two opposing worldviews within Western society which rule each other out. The first, the idealistic strand, operates in clear opposition to mainstream politics. Economic growth in this worldview cannot continue because in the end it will destroy nature and with it human society. It is therefore usually labelled as ‘pessimistic’. This pessimism should however be viewed as a political tool in the search for the ‘good society’. By contrast, the conformist strand adherents are contemporary ‘optimists’. They do not envision a break with the past. The agenda here is that of political and economic continuity. Both sides in the debate claim the strategy of the other as impossible. The debate about sustainability should overcome this blockade to get back on course.

Notes

1. W. van Dieren & L. Reijnders in the Dutch Newspaper NRC Handelsblad, 24 May 1995.

2. Soma Wadhwa, ‘And he can keep it’, Outlook India, Monday 12 July 2004.

3. See the paragraph about ‘growth’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

S. W. Verstegen

S.W. Verstegen is a lecturer in economic, social and environmental history at the Free University, Amsterdam. He has published on landed elites, the history of industrial innovations, and the environmental debate.

J. C. Hanekamp

J.C. Hanekamp works at the HAN Foundation, a Dutch academic think tank focusing on public issues related to such areas as the environment, agriculture, biotechnology, and chemistry. These topics border more or less with issues of sustainability and precautionary thinking. This article is the second instalment of a series of articles dealing with these themes. The preceding article, published in Journal of Risk Research, dealt with the history of the precautionary principle.