SUSTAINABILITY

(beyond welfare economics)

a.y. 2018 / 2019

Marco Se>i

University of Bologna 1
 Sustainability

Ethics of consumption:

•  demographic growth where the lower is the population

density (Ehrlich and Ehrlich, 1991);

•  high demographic density Countries = high entropy;

•  not only numbers, but also behaviours [Environmental

Kuznets Curve]

University of Bologna 2
 Sustainability

Individual income distribution, demographic and environmental curves

Year 2010
Population
(.000 people)

1.800.000 death rate

1.600.000
birth rate
1.400.000
1.200.000 per capita
1.000.000 pollution
800.000
per capita
600.000
depollution
400.000
200.000
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Individual income
Source: Lanza (.000 $)
University of Bologna 3
University of Bologna 4
 Sustainability
Sustainability:

Ø  justice: equity across people

Ø  nature: irreversibility of environmental change

Ø  time: uncertainty of long-term outcomes

Beyond welfare economics (normative approach):

- sustainability: complex notion and scope

- sustainability: not only market mechanisms and economics

5
University of Bologna
 Sustainability
Sustainability:
•  integration among economic – social – environmental
dimensions

University of Bologna 6
 Sustainability
Sustainability:
•  integration among economic – social – environmental
dimensions
•  intra- and inter-generational equilibria
•  global and local development
•  participation of social actors

² Hardings (1998): “sustainability” refers to the goal and

“sustainable development” is the path or framework to
achieve it
² Filho (2000): “sustainability” is the process, while
sustainable development the landing
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 Sustainability
What is to be sustained ?

Quite common in disputes to seek the normative high ground

by defining a technical / scientific / environmental term

"...the goal is not a sustained level of a physical stock or

physical production from an ecosystem over time, but some
sustained increase in the level of societal and individual
welfare”
(Dixon and Fallon, 1989)

“Normative notion of sustainability to combine two

components: efficiency and equity”
(Stavins et al., 2003)
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 Sustainability
What is to be sustained ?

“Justice is the normative foundation of sustainability”

(Baumgartner and Quaas, 2010) (Rauschmayer et al., 2015)

“Sustainability is a matter of distributional equity …: danger

of overspecification and of underspecification … human
development as a major contribution to the achievement of
sustainability”
(Anand and Sen, 2000)

“Sustainability is about human well-being: … from a technical

to an ethical view”
“… a concept of sustainability that supplies the motivation to
act”
9
(Jamieson, 1998, and cit. Kothari)
 Beyond welfare economics
What is human well-being ?

u Standard of living: needs / wants

Resources: primary goods (income, wealth,

food, …) (Rawls)

u Quality of life or life-style, “rather than accumulation of

goods” (Sen, 1999)

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 Beyond welfare economics
Capability approach (CA)
Reaction to utilitarianism and resourcist approaches (Ballet 2013):
human development is not limited to needs and desires satisfaction and
to resource allocation

CA = Ethical theory, Theory of comparative justice:

(descriptive) social ontology (Martins, 2011) and evaluative / prescriptive
framework

What is human well-being ? How to assess it ?

Human beings heterogeneity (vertical equity)

From needs and resources to a more comprehensive notion:

freedom of choice (Lessman and Rauschmayer, 2013)

Human well-being must be evaluated in terms of the freedoms to be and

to do what people have reasons to value
Individual freedom of choice as informational space where to use 11
judgments of value to assess the quality of life
 Beyond welfare economics
Capability approach (CA)

CA considers individual freedom to be both constitutive of,

and instrumental for, development (Sen, 1999)

Converting endowments in (Martin, 2013):

•  actual opportunities (achievements): functionings

•  potential opportunities (freedom to achieve): capabilities

CA a normative foundation for sustainability

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 Sustainability
What is to be sustained ?

Brundtland Report (WCED, 1987):

“Sustainable development is development that meets

the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

CA normative foundation for sustainability and suitable

approach for its assessment (Sen, 1999, 2009, 2013):

Sustainable development preserves and expands “the

substantive freedoms of people today without
compromising the freedoms / capabilities of future
generations to have similar – or more – freedom”
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 Beyond welfare economics
Capability approach (CA)
Some shortcomings (Ballet et al., 2011; Setti and Garuti, 2018):

o  individualistic features and lack of collective / systemic dimension

o  static evaluative space: personal evolution and detrimental choices

o  uncertainty: no choice option (status quo)

Human well-being as intertwined spheres of identity:

²  singularity (dignity)
²  sociality (membership)

Identity a normative foundation for sustainability:

Sustainable development preserves and expands the
substantive identity of people today without compromising
the identity of future generations
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 Sustainability
What are the implications for food, land, water, energy, …?

Food: not only commodity, bulk of nutrients, or

minimum of security, but

² identity-based resource

Food should feed quality of life / life-style:

- health
- culture
- sociality and conviviality
- dignity
- creativity
- awareness
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 Sustainability
How to sustain ?

Weak Human Natural

Strong
sustainable capital capital sustainable
development development
Manufactured
Stocks interchangeable capital Stocks not interchangeable
Technological progress Technological progress
Investment policies Human capital policies
Efficiency requirements Stability requirements

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 Sustainability
How to sustain ?

Weak Human Natural

Strong
sustainable capital capital sustainable
development development
Manufactured
Stocks interchangeable capital Stocks not interchangeable
Technological progress Technological progress
Investment policies Human capital policies
Efficiency requirements Stability requirements

Welfare Economics Ecological Economics

(bioeconomics)
Environmental Economics
(Georgescu-Roegen)
(Solow, Hartwick)
Degrowth Theory
University of Bologna (Latouche) 17
 Sustainability
UN’s 17 sustainable development goals:
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs

Università di Bologna 18
 Sustainability
UN’s 17 sustainable development goals:
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs
Think tank:
http://sustainability.com/

Sustainability and food:

Radar Magazine (Sustainability):
http://radar.sustainability.com/issue-14/
FoodDrinkEurope – Environmental Sustainability:
http://www.fooddrinkeurope.eu/about-us/role-and-mission/
EU Food Sustainable Consumption Production Round Table:
http://www.food-scp.eu
Food Sustainability Index: 19
http://foodsustainability.eiu.com
 References
Anand, S. and Sen, A. (2000). Human development and economic sustainability, World Development, 28(12), 2029–2049

Baumgärtner, S. and Quaas, M. (2010). What is sustainability economics? Ecological Economics, 69(3), 445–450

Demals, T. and Hyard, A. (2014). Is Amartya Sen's sustainable freedom a broader vision of sustainability, Ecological
Economics, 102, 33–38

Dixon, J.A. and Fallon, L.A. (1989). The Concept of Sustainability: Origins, Extensions and Usefulness for Policy, Society
and Natural Resources, 2, 73–84

Ehrlich, P. and Ehrlich, A. (1991). The Population Explosion

Filho, W. L. (2000). Dealing with misconceptions on the concept of sustainability. International Journal of Sustainability in
Higher Education, 1(1), 9–19

Martins, N. (2016). Ecosystems, strong sustainability and the classical circular economy, Ecological Economics, 129 (2016)
32–39

Pelenc, J. and Ballet, J. (2015). Strong sustainability, critical natural capital and the capability approach, Ecological
Economics, 112, 36–44

Rauschmayer, F., Bauler, T. and Schapke, N. (2015). Towards a thick understanding of Sustainability Transition, Ecological
Economics, 109, 211-221
Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

Sen, A. (2009). The Idea of Justice. Allen Lane, London.

Sen, A. (2013). The Ends and Means of Sustainability. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities: A Multi-Disciplinary
Journal for People-Centered Development, 14(1), 6–20

Setti, M. and Garuti, M. (2018). Identity, Commons, and Sustainability: An Economic Perspective, Sustainability, 10, 409, 1-12

Stavins, R.N., Wagner, A.F. and Wagner, G. (2003). Interpreting sustainability in economic terms: dynamic efficiency plus
intergenerational equity, Economics Letters, 79, 339–343 20

WCED - World Commission for Environment and Development, 1987. Our Common Future. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Jamieson, D. (1998). Sustainability and beyond. Ecological Economics, 24(2–3), 183–192