New growth and the fossilized economy: sustainable development, discourse, and the case of recommodification
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Date
2025
Authors
Whiting, Sydney
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Political Science
Abstract
Starting in the 1960s, there was increased public awareness of environmentalism and, later, anthropogenic climate change. Public and private interests began to focus on the ‘issue’ of the environment, and in 1987, the UN Our Common Future Report (later known as the Brundtland Report) introduced the concept of sustainable development (SD). Using this concept as my guide, my research question is: Is the model of SD, as presented in the 1987 Brundtland Report, effective? I argue that SD, with an inherent emphasis on development and (economic) growth, is not a useful tool to advance effective climate action. Through participant observation at a Canadian corporate/climate conference and interviews with young sustainability professionals with experience in the public and private sectors (n=8), I argue that the concepts of sustainability and SD have been co-opted (through discourse and action) by corporations looking to profit. As such, I observe a corporate culture which embraces and adheres to the model of SD, but which uses SD to justify business- and growth-first approaches to environmentalism. I then outline a model of ‘recommodified SD,’ informed by the need to ‘sell’ the idea of SD (in its corporate and commodified form) to and from staff and their organizations. Ultimately, I present an argument on the discursive functionality of SD in perpetuating the idea that There Is No Alternative (TINA) from status-quo approaches to climate action.
Description
xiv, 141 pages : illustrated
Keywords
Sustainable development , Sustainability , Climate action , Recommodification , Environmentalism