Book Reviews: 'Managing Sustainable Development, Second Edition', Carley, Michael & Christie, Ian

摘要

Sustainable development (SD) became an important leitmotiv of the late 20thncentury, appearing with impressive frequency in the development and environmentnliterature, corporate and technocratic planning statements, and many an after-ndinner conversation. It was a nice idea, a good ideal. But what did it mean,nand how could it be achieved? The more people have sought to understandnthe concept, and the greater the range of perspectives that have been drawnninto the debate, the more complex and all-encompassing the notion of sustainablendevelopment has become. A concept that means many things to many peoplenis very difficult to translate into a clear action plan. Paradoxically, the morenenlightened we have become about the concept, the more we have come tonrealise how difficult sustainable development will be to achieve. Indeed, recentnthinking has already relegated sustainable development from a goal to anprocess — “an intensely political process”, as Carley and Christie rightly argue,nwhich requires mediation between a veritable raft of actors and interests, andnin turn involves trade-offs, not least between the ideal and real.