ABSTRACT
The goals of sustainability and wellbeing are experienced at the micro-level while simultaneously featuring as priorities in national and international agendas. "Creating Capacities for Human Flourishing: An Alternative Approach to Human Development" develops the idea that social wellbeing and sustainability have become interwoven developmental aspirations but still require adequate theorization. Though permeated by strong ideological and idealistic views, their writings sound pragmatic and feasible; indeed, they show how addressing the problem of sustainability and wellbeing requires connecting vision and context, radical thought and practical agendas. Speculations about humanity, the human environment, and its sustainability have been at the core of utopia as a literary genre since its origin in 1516. From the second half of the eighteenth century the focus of utopian writers began to shift from another place to another time. As the temporal dimension became central, classical utopia became uchronia, expressing concern about history and human development. The demise of civilization is caused by a global catastrophe.
