Question

how is economics treated as scienceof sustainable development

Answer 1

Ecological economics seeks to recognize what traditional economics often ignores; that the economy is embedded in wider social and biophysical systems. To date ecological economics has focused on the biophysical dimensions of these interactions. Yet achieving sustainable development will require difficult decisions regarding which environmental and other assets should be preserved, and in what form. This emphasizes the importance of understanding why particular environmental resources and services are important to human well-being, and how social and economic institutions may be structured to make the best use of these and other forms of capital. The paper thus examines a variety of approaches to well-being, characterizing these as interpreting well-being as a state of mind, as a state of the world, as human capability, or as the satisfaction of underlying needs. The literature surveyed is drawn largely from political philosophy and psychology, and includes classical utilitarianism and self-evaluative approaches, descriptive