Student: Haley Flora
Graduation date: May 2014
Type: Concentration (single major)
Date approved: November 2012
Summary
My concentration critiques the exportation of the sustainability paradigm to the Global South. Analyzing the implementation of sustainable development projects in the Global South may reveal the constructed character of the sustainability paradigm and the unequal power relations between the North and the Global South. Discourse analysis may prove and key to critiquing the exportation of sustainability, in that it incorporates Foucault’s power/knowledge/discourse theory in order to understand the power relations and mechanisms that produce knowledge about sustainability (Foucault, 1979). The creators of sustainable development were embedded in Northern environmentalism and constrained by the different cultural conceptions of the environment; they created sustainability and sustainable development as a way to merge economic interests and environmental concerns. The commission lauded the vitality of economic growth, and argued that environmental degradation is the fault of specific practices within economic growth, specifically the practices of the poor (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). The original description of sustainable development outlines an unrealistic way to have your cake and eat it too. Some argue that this conception reiterates the unequal North-South power relations, and supports the global economic structure that is largely the cause of unsustainable practices (Lohmann, 1990). Similarly Ramachandra Guha argues against the WCED, claiming that poverty does not cause environmental degradation; export production pressure by the North leads to environmental degradation. Guha further argues that the northern conception of the environment is unsuitable for application in the Global South (Guha, 1997). Since the Brundtland Repot in 1987, sustainable development’s objectives have been expanded to include social equity alongside environmental quality in harmony with economic well-being (Conca, 2004). Critiquing the practicality of this fuzzy, misappropriated term is extremely important because of its widespread application, often by the very groups that are largely at fault for unsustainable practices (Schor, 2002). Another troubling aspect of sustainability is that it cannot be assessed on a large scale in any meaningful way. In order to assess the success of sustainability one must specify what or who is being sustained. Sustainability is becoming an overused cliché, to halt this trend one must question: what conception of sustainable development is valuable and to whom, or when is sustainable a useful term? (Lele, 1991). This disruptive process challenges the current Northern dominated environmentalism: it reveals the origins of how society thinks about the environment in order to formulate a more successful construction of knowledge (Cronon, 1993). The construction of “sustainable development” forecloses those solutions that are not embedded in northern conceptions and pre-existing power relations. Analyzing the discourse on sustainable development opens space for thinking differently about diverse environmental problems.
Narrowing the focus to specific sustainable development project allows for one to question to what extent is local participation and accountability to local communities included in sustainable development projects? ; to what extent do sustainable development initiative account for these uses and offer compensation so that locals will be able to support themselves? ; and, if there are contradictions that reveal different assumptions inherent to different communities cultural and social relations to their environments. Considering a variety of SD projects also acknowledges the variety of geographical and social differences within the Global South. In Thailand the Planterra Foundation, a non-profit from Canada, has teamed up with STA Travel to create a community conservation center specifically to manage and promote sustainable tourism on the island of Koh Phra Thong. The Blu Guru diving company (a company on the island that is not run by locals) has been promoting the community center through a variety of veiled mediums. In recently independent South Africa the UNA has funded a sustainable development initiative in the OR Tambo Precinct in Emalahleni which includes an environmental center for education and a solar power plant. This project is touted by different government representatives, notably by “Brand South Africa” in an attempt to create a sustainable image of South African development. The related Ntinga OR Tambo Development agency promotes its initiative to “exploit” the “untapped natural resources” on “virgin” and common land in order to grow sustainable crops of sunflowers. This project is sustainable in that the product, biodiesel, is a sustainable fuel that may be exported to oil companies such as BP. In the Ndalani region of Kenya the Global Angels Foundation, from the UK, and a local business man have teamed up to provide housing for children, build a water purification plant, and teach organic bean farming. The village is 40% sustainable, and expected to reach 70% soon; in this case sustainability is measure of self-sufficiency. Situating thusly covers the totality of a social constructivist approach: including a historical analysis of the construction of sustainability; how assumptions within sustainable development impact power relations; and the effects of the socially constructed character of sustainable development on the environment, on the economic success of the project, and on the social impact of the project (Robbins, 2010).
References
Edelman, Lee. No future : queer theory and the death drive. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004.
Lohmann, L. “Whose common future?” The Ecologist 20, no. 3 (1990): 82–84.
Robbins, Paul, John Hintz, and Sarah A Moore. Environment and society : a critical introduction. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.; Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
Questions
- Descriptive: Describe the assumptions or internal logic of sustainability, and how these constructions came to be. When sustainable discourse is transported or transposed to the Global South how does the local culture affect the local conception and discourse on sustainability? Which global power mechanisms (in the form of interspersed power relations and institutions) deploy sustainability in the global south and what are the assumptions or presumptions implicit in these different conceptions of sustainability? How do different conceptions of sustainability reinforce specific power relations?
- Explanatory: Considering sustainable development projects in the global south, how does the exportation of the assumptions within the construction of sustainability impact the success of these projects?
- Evaluative: Since sustainability cannot be assessed except in very specific situations, is sustainability a useful term? If so what conception of sustainable development is most likely to remedy the problem of unstainability?
Concentration courses
- Gender Studies 328 (Queer Studies), note, when I took this class it was a 200 level class, but the professor changed it to a 300, the reading and the syllabus are exactly the same. This class describes power/knowledge in depth. It details how assumptions are built into discourse and language, and describes different methods to get out from under discourse in order to think differently.
- IA 325 (Power and International Relations, 4 credits), spring 2014. This course offers a global conception of power (describing different forms and conceptions of power and its role in global politics), which is crucial in understanding knowledge/power as it pertains to sustainable development.
- IA 238 (Political Economy of Development, 4 credits), spring 2012. This course describes the interplay of politics and economy in the realm of development. It would provide insight into the political and economic forces impacting sustainable development projects.
- SOAN 214 (Social Change, 4 credits), fall 2013. This course describes social change in the context of environmental relations, science and technology, and development issues in the southern hemisphere, all of which are crucial in understand the role and effectiveness of sustainable development.
- PHIL 314 (Ethical Theory, 4 credits), spring 2014. This course delves into topics including, subjectivism, ethics and science, social contract theory, rights, and blameworthiness, all of which provide insight into the North-South divide and the morality of sustainable development.