ABSTRACT
Our Common Future is a joint work produced in 1987 by a United Nations commission headed by former Norwegian Prime Minister, Gro Brundtland. Also known as The Brundtland Report, it offers a classic approach to problem solving by first asking a productive question.
How do we protect the world we live in for future generations, while at the same time stimulating economic and social development right now? The solution the work proposes is “sustainable development”, defined in the report as humanity’s ability “to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The key conclusion the report came to – that we need long-term strategies to manage the earth’s natural resources – proved to be so universally welcomed it introduced the term “sustainability” into the everyday language of international politics. Solving the problem of workable sustainable development became a hot topic, leading to the birth of a new academic discipline, environmental economics. The book offered a solution to the problem of ensuring sustainable development by highlighting the critical importance of international cooperation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
section 1|18 pages
Influences
module 1|4 pages
The Author and the Historical Context
module 2|4 pages
Academic Context
module 3|5 pages
The Problem
module 4|4 pages
The Author’s Contribution
section 2|20 pages
Ideas
module 5|4 pages
Main Ideas
module 6|5 pages
Secondary Ideas
module 7|5 pages
Achievement
module 8|5 pages
Place in the Author’s Work
section 3|21 pages
Impact
module 9|5 pages
The First Responses
module 10|5 pages
The Evolving Debate
module 11|5 pages
Impact and Influence Today
module 12|5 pages
Where Next?