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Sustainable Development: Lost Meaning and Opportunity?

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Abstract

The term Sustainable Development has been used in many different contexts and consequently has come to represent many different ideas. The purpose of this paper was to explore the underlying meaning of the term Sustainable Development, and to assess the dominant ethic behind such meaning. Through this exploration, we uncovered a change in the semantic meaning of the term, and described what that meaning entails. The term Sustainable Development had the potential, we argue, to stimulate discursive engagement with respect to the future development of society within an ethical framework based around the values of inclusivity, diversity, and integration. The importance of philosophical context within which the term is used influences the definitional process of meaning, and has been simulated into the language of the dominant scientific-economic paradigm. We go on to explore how this meaning change has come about. In doing so we looked to the Enlightenment period and the resulting philosophies to explore the foundations of meaning, and then to the work of Jürgen Habermas to explain how the scientific-economic paradigm came to dominate the meaning of Sustainable Development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2N1N4

    A. H. T. Fergus & J. I. A. Rowney

Authors
  1. A. H. T. Fergus
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  2. J. I. A. Rowney
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Correspondence to J. I. A. Rowney.

Additional information

Andrew Fergus is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Haskayne School of Business, with a double major in Organizational Dynamics (Organizational theory/behaviour) and Environmental Management/Sustainable Development. His research is focused towards the dynamic relationships found at the interface of organizations, society, and the environment. Julie Rowney is a Professor, Human Resources and Organizational Dynamics, in the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. Dr. Rowney’s research activities lie in the areas of diversity, gender, environmental organizational interactions, human resources (leadership, change, crisis issues) and international/cross-cultural comparisons.

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Fergus, A.H.T., Rowney, J.I.A. Sustainable Development: Lost Meaning and Opportunity?. J Bus Ethics 60, 17–27 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-005-2927-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-005-2927-9

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