Excourse into Sustainable Development

Abstract

This paper deals with the concept of sustainable development by means of three theses. The first thesis is related to the fact that the concept of sustainable development is a part of a historical continuity of thought in modern society. On the one hand we have objective „continuity“ of the natural world, i. e. the rurality, on the other there is a continuity of modern society. In this respect sustainable development is viewed in the context including following aspects: market-oriented and liberal model of social development, issue of growth and globalisation and cold war era.
The second thesis refers to some principled questions in terms of sustainable development and fundamental contradiction between sustainability as a static and development as a dynmaic notion. In this sense the author deals with some features of sustainable development and relationships between growth and development, sustainability and development as principled issues in this discourse.
The third theses includes some theorethical questions concernig sustainable development such as the question of normativity of the concept and its ethical dimension and the possibility of a continuous management of development.
In the final part of this paper the question is stated whether sustainable development is a concept of a development adapted to new circumstances of ecological crisis and globalisation or it is a concept that would enable a more long-termed balance between development and sustainability.