Norgaard, Richard B. 1988. "Sustainable Development: A Co-Evolutionary View." Futures (Dec.): 606-620.

Thesis:

The policy challenge for sustainable development is to rediscover paths toward positive social and ecological co-evolution (p.617).

Summary:

Norgaard outlines the following five levels of sophistication in thinking about sustainable development (p.607):

Can a region's agricultural and industrial practices continue indefinitely?

Is a region dependent upon non-renewable resources from beyond its boundaries?

Is the region culturally sustainable? That is, does it contribute as much as it takes from the information bases of other regions?

Is the region contributing to global environmental change, i.e. is it forcing other regions to change?

Are all regions in combination culturally sustainable? That is, are they on mutually sustaining paths, or will they destroy each other?

All of these definitions focus on the changing relationships between people and their environments. The last four also refer to the interactions between regions and cultural systems. Thus, sustainable development goes beyond the 'limits to growth' literature. It includes a positive understanding of the role of culture and diversity. Sustainability means that "the overall diversity and overall productivity of components and relations in systems are maintained or enhanced" (p.617).

Sustainable development, as Norgaard defines it, does not necessarily imply "moral progress" or material increase, and in fact may be a response to a loss of faith in progress (p.618). In contrast, our present unsustainable development finds its epistemological roots in the Western modern belief in progress, which is a self-perpetuating creation of "need" (pp.611-13). Western modern thought holds dichotomies between nature and society, and between local and "universal" scientific knowledge. Scientific knowledge has been characterized by a search for mechanistic universals, rather than looking at organic, contextual, changing relations between ecosytems and social systems. However, understanding of environmental systems requires understanding how humans have influenced them over time (p.616).

Until the introduction of hydrocarbons, social systems and ecological systems co-evolved to favor human welfare (p.617). "People initiated new interactions with their environment and social institutions -- in the form of behavioral norms, myths and organization -- developed to reinforce those interactions which were favourable and discourage those which were unfavourable" (p.617). While some societies did not evolve sustainably, "their demise did not take the global environment with them" (ibid). Hydrocarbons, which "freed societies from immediate environmental constraints,"drove a wedge" between sustainable co-evolution of social and ecological systems. Social systems began to evolve around finding new means to exploit hydrocarbons. Our social systems have conformed to medium term opportunities, rather than long range, sustainable opportunities. Western social systems have been modified by the development process, and this in turn, has affected our choices of technology, and our creation of "need".

The policy challenge for sustainable development is to rediscover paths toward positive social and ecological co-evolution (p.617). Sustainable development "entails adapting policies and strategies that sequentially reduce the likelihood that especially valuable traits will disappear prematurely. It also entails the fostering of diversity per se" (p.618). Sustainable development applies equally to the development of belief systems, environmental systems, organizational systems, and knowledge systems (ibid). Development has been unsustainable both because of the introduction of hydrocarbons, and because of the equation of knowledge with Western, dichotomous knowledge. Policy making should include interactions with a diversity of knowledge bases, and it should incorporate a more contextual/interpretive approach to knowledge. Policies should look toward global governance to support local ecosystems. (p.619).

Keywords: sustainable development, co-evolution, diversity