ABSTRACT
Very reasonably Eden (2000) can describe sustainable development as a ‘slippery concept’; the diverse interpretation of ‘needs’ it permits, she contends, forms a key attraction for policy-makers and lobby groups, as it allows sustainable development ‘to mean what one would like it to mean’ (p. 111). Ever present in contemporary political rhetoric, the compilation of as many as 70 different usages is testament to sustainable development’s diverse and contested connotations. Nonetheless debates about the prospects for achieving sustainable development are particularly relevant at this moment in time. Growing world populations, escalating demands on natural resources, energy and food, provide the backdrop to the major global challenge of reducing poverty and inequality without damaging and degrading our environment. In an increasingly inter-connected world, the relentless consumption of goods and services, and the rising demand for greater levels of production to satisfy it, present a testing challenge to the Brundtland call for ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (WCED 1987).
