Editorial: in the name of sustainability
by Ângela Guimarães Pereira; Paula Curvelo
International Journal of Sustainable Development (IJSD), Vol. 18, No. 4, 2015

Abstract: Over the past decades an enormous number of projects, enterprises and initiatives invoking sustainability objectives have multiplied in the most diverse domains: human health, agriculture, energy, climate engineering, information and communication technologies, aerospace, landscape, computer modelling, technological innovation, etc. Many of these projects have become highly public and intensely politicised, so it comes as no surprise that the recurring 'technical progress' and 'sustainable development' claims are often contested and criticised. Indeed, these technological initiatives, whether seen as effective vehicles for accelerating human development or for addressing local/global problems, draw attention to two different kinds of contemporary dilemma: the paradoxes of technology and the paradoxes (or contradictions) of sustainability, both of which demand a great deal of reflexivity. This editorial looks into the critique of the ways in which sustainability narratives have been used to motivate or justify many projects. The special issue that this editorial introduces seeks to promote a critical discussion around the contemporary and unsolved paradoxes of the technology-development-sustainability nexus, which is begging for rethinking the very concept of sustainability.

Online publication date: Tue, 15-Dec-2015

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