This article examines some aspects of socioeconomic development in light of complexity theory. It examines some nonlinear interactions between economic systems, institutions, population growth, knowledge creation and utilization, and cultural values. Multiple possibilities of behavioral patterns resulting from these nonlinear interactions are emphasized. It is argued that when “sustainability” ...

In 1992 the United Nations Conference on Environment and Deve10pment consolidated the need for a sustainab1e deve10pment that wou1d reconci1e global ecological, economic and social cancerns. To operationalize this three-dimensional agenda the global action plan for sustainable development, Agenda 21, emphasizes the need for a broad participation and cooperation among states and societal groups....

The past 15 years have witnessed the rise of post-development theory as a means of understanding the development discourse since the 1940s. Post-development argues that Intentional development (as distinct from Immanent development – what people are doing anyway), is a construct of Western hegemony. Sustainable development, they argue, is no different and indeed is perhaps worse given that most...

Preface The advancing climate change is one of the most important and most urgent challenges of our time. However, the UN Climate Conference in Copenha-gen in December 2009 made clear how difficult it is to achieve an international agreement on binding climate protection goals. Germany has a pioneering role in climate research and climate modelling, in the development of strategies to adapt to ...

This paper critically reviews the application of a post-development analysis to sustainable development by employing a defined target for post-development analysis-the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). The 'quadratic' EKC predicts an increase in environmental degradation with national wealth before reaching a point of inflection. Data from the 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) for ...

1. Resilience This special issue results from a call for papers to address the connection between resilience and sustainability, and stems from the fact that the ecological concept of resilience has been exercising an increasing influence on the economics of development. Resilience is interpreted in two different ways by ecologists: one capturing the speed of return to equilibrium following per...

Education, Benefitting from Oil Revenues, and Sustainable Development A. Ansari, Ph.D. To assess the status of Iranian educational system within a special conceptual framework of economic development, a number of existing documents related to the expenditure of oil revenues on education were critically reviewed. The results show that within any economic framework in which sustainable deve...