Schrecker, Ted. 1996. "Introduction: Whither Sustainable Development?" Journal of Canadian Studies 31(1): 3-6.

Thesis:

"[I]ssues of distributive justice are critically important if strategies for integrating economic and ecological concerns are to be ethically defensible" (p.5).

Summary:

Schrecker, as editor of a special issue of the Journal of Canadian Studies which focuses on 'sustainable development' briefly discusses how the concept was introduced, and how it has evolved over the past decade, and introduces a collection of Canadian case studies pertaining to sustainability issues. Sustainable development is defined as "a conceptual framework that integrates ecological concerns with a critique of exploitative political and economic relationships, particularly at the international level" (p.3). Schrecker holds that over the years, the aspirations of sustainable development became more modest, as a realization grew regarding the immensity of the challenge of existing development models and their beneficiaries (ibid). Today, we can look upon a multitude of reformulations of the concept of sustainable development, which for Schrecker, is testimony to the power of the concept.

This issue of the JCS focuses on how the concept is applied or ignored in the real world. The articles illustrate a variety of responses to sustainability concerns in specific development projects in Canada. These are: (1) denial, as in northern Atlantic fishery (Rogers); (2) the use of economic power to silence critics through SLAPPS (Sherman et al, and Tollefson); (3) assimilating dimensions of sustainable development into an existing discourse (Sandberg and Clancy, and Rayner); and (4) most positively, creative partnership (Hamel and Vaillancourt) and mutual understanding (Cragg and Schwartz).

Schrecker comments on the dangers of assimilating sustainable development issues into existing discourse when they are taken from a market perspective, which can "legitimize a broader political agenda of imposing the market and its meanings on almost every area of social and economic life," leaving out questions of the allocation of resources (p.4). In addition, assimilation can disguise value conflicts.

The value in mutual understanding approaches is that they "explicitly acknowledge tensions surrounding the distribution of income and power, and the ethical significance of those tensions" (p.4). This is critical, in Schrecker's view, because what made the Brundtland Commission's call for sustainable development compelling was its focus on distributive justice, between generations, between rich and poor countries, and between rich and poor individuals within those countries. He closes by arguing that

[a]s globalization subordinates the choices made in rich and poor countries alike to the hegemony of "market forces," it is essential to recall and to build upon the insight that environmental degradation and economic insecurity are linked by a distribution of wealth and power that is profoundly inequitable, both intra-nationally and globally. (p.5).

Keywords: distributive justice, globalization, sustainable development, partnership, mutual understanding