ABSTRACT
There is a tension that has run through this book, and that also runs through a great deal of writing about the environment and development, both South and North. The argument set out here has drawn a distinction between ‘mainstream’ approaches to sustainability, and various more radical countercurrents. This distinction is not an absolute one, as even a cursory closer analysis of the kaleidoscope of ideas about sustainability soon demonstrates. Nonetheless, sustainable development thinking contains both technocentric and ecocentric responses to the threats of development to environment and people. The former tend to be pragmatic, involving technical and implementable steps towards the reform of development practice. The latter tend to be radical, and demand fundamental change in political economic structures.
