ABSTRACT

This chapter presents a typology of sustainable development perspectives and shows how they can either conflict with, or align with, one another. The first proposition is that different perceptions of sustainability reflect differing views of the human relationship with nature. The second is that at the root of the differing views of the human–environment relationship is differences in socioeconomic, sociopolitical and ecological contexts. Several scholars have developed typologies of the views found in Western societies, but none of them appears to capture the perspectives of those living in subsistence circumstances. A specific case may help illustrate the misunderstandings that can appear when traditional, modern and postmodern views collide. Most of the locals who worked for the mine held traditional subsistence views. One of the frustrations of a stakeholder-oriented approach to managing for sustainable development is that stakeholders disagree with one another about what sustainable development means. Their view of sustainable development is rooted in a fundamental change in humanity.