مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - SUSTAINABILITY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE

Abstract :

The concerns about sustainability set the new agenda for the debate on economic development and eventually induced the emergence of sustainable development as a focal point for these debates. Besides, debates on sustainability caused a shift in the conventional neoclassical perspective on the environment and natural resources and pave the way for the emergence of new economic schools such as environmental and natural resources economics and ecological economics which appeared in response to the former. Examining historical development process of sustainability and sustainable development concepts, this study reviews the debates on these concepts, in particular, focusing on intergenerational equity, efficiency in resource allocation and input substitutability, and reveals the current situation and positions held by economic schools of thought in these debates. Furthermore, this review presents a list of topics needed to be addressed in the future researches. In addition to theoretical and empirical studies investigating the relationship between sustainability and technological innovations, and substitutability relationship between inputs; the need for empirical research on weak and strong sustainability criteria and country studies are pinned down.