The Diverse and Contested Meanings of Sustainable Development

Abstract

We provide a heuristic framework that can be used as a lens for understanding the arguments being presented in the papers which comprise this special issue on sustainable development and environmental issues in Great Britain. This framework can also be used as an introduction to the wider literature on sustainable development because it is designed to bring greater clarity to this large, diverse and rapidly expanding field of enquiry populated by heterogeneous discourses, multiple approaches and a variety of recommendations as to the ways forward.

Keywords: sustainable development, environmental paradox, environmentalism, strong sustainability, weak sustainability, deep ecology, shallow environmentalism

JEL Classification: Q3