Democracy and Technology in the Case of the Brundtland Report
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TECNOLÓGICO DE MONTERREY ® THE QUESTION CONCERNING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE CASE OF THE BRUNDTLAND REPORT DOCTORATE IN HUMANISTIC STUDIES THESIS PRESENTED BY: MARTIN McLENNAN JAN UARY 2008 MEXICO CITY CAMPUS SUMMARY Given the apparently contradictory needs of economic growth and environmental conservation, it comes as no surprise that the term "sustainable development" which aims at both ends has had such a powerful influence in contemporary discussions. The term was farmalized with the 1987 publication of the Brundtland Commission's Our Common Future (OCF). This United Nations (UN) sponsored book was to fundament a major change in the tace of development and fundament a new hegemony and direction "not just in a few places far a few years, but far the entire planet into the distant future" (1987, p. 4). Since then the use of the term has grown exponentially, justifying much of the development work carried out by the UN and other transnational, national and local governing bodies. On paper, the consensual work seems both impressive and reassuring. However, after twenty years of implementation there remains the question: since world leaders got involved with the issue in the late 1980s, does humanity live in a more sustainable way than before? Whatever the answers are to this query, all points to the starting point of this thesis: what is sustainable development? Is there a clear-cut oran objective referent far this concept? In which ways has the concept been shaped by the diverse political, economic, ethnic, and grassroots interests involved in its implementation? Is it a democratic response to the ills of technocratic society, or is it a tool far control? This thesis essays to offer a critique on the UN's concept of sustainable development, brought out by present day modalities and concepts of modernity, technology, democracy and their essential interaction. By facusing on sustainable development and using Critica! Theory as a heuristic, we can see the multitude of historical, economic, social, and philosophic assumptions and players involved in the discussion. The result is that this critique should then open up the possibility to create a better normative and subsequently an improved, more democratic and prescriptive version of the concept. iv INDEX ACRONYMS, ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS ............................................................vii INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................viii CHAPTER 1. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: CRITICAL THEORY FROM ALDOUS HUXLEY TO ANDREW FEENBERG ............................................................ 1 1.1 Huxley and Technological Dystopia .................................................................2 1.2 The Positions Concerning Technology ..............................................................6 1.3 Heidegger's Approach ..................................................................................? 1.4 Marcuse's Approach ...................................................................................23 1.5 Feenberg's Approach .................................................................................57 Chapter Conclusions and Questions ...................................................................95 CHAPTER 2. GREENPEACE, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY .......................................................................................98 2.1 Technocracy and the Ecological Revolt. ........................................................ 102 2.2 Ecology and the People .............................................................................115 2.3 The After Effects ......................................................................................123 Chapter Conclusions ......................................................................................124 CHAPTER 3. DEVELOPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY: FROM DIVERGENCE TO CONVERGENCE TO TOLERABILITY ...................................................... 128 3.1 The Birth of Underdevelopment.. ................................................................. 132 3.2 The Theory of Development and the Ideal of Universality: Rostow's Stages of Growth ................................................................................................... 135 3.3 The Reality of Universalization: The Creation of the lnternational Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IRBD)-a.k.a. the World Bank ...................... 139 V 3.4 Development and Economic Morality in the Postwar ........................................ 143 3.5 From Development Decade to Lost Decade: The Bank Starts Loaning ................ 147 3.5.1 The World Bank Opens for Business ............................................... 150 3.5.2 The Politics of Politics-Free Lending ................................................ 153 3.5.3 Mega-Project Loaning .................................................................. 157 Subsection conclusions ................................................................17 4 3.6 The Economics of lnequality .......................................................................178 3.6.1 Simon Kuznets and the Birth of Divergence ...................................... 180 3.6.2 How the "Third World" Diverged ..................................................... 182 3.6.3 lntra-National Divergence ............................................................. 191 3.6.4 From Convergence to Tolerability ................................................... 193 3.6.5 The "Dismal Science" and its Biases ............................................... 194 Chapter Conclusions ......................................................................................196 CHAPTER 4. QUESTIONING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ....................................... 201 4.1 A Micro History of the Environmental Movement and the Background of the Brundtland Commission ..................................................................................211 4.2 Whose Common Future? ..........................................................................................223 4.3 Sustainable Development: Concern or Control? ....................................................... 231 4.4 The Syntax of Sustainable Development and the Language of Domination ........... 233 4.5 The Brundtland Report's Sustainable Development. ........................................ 238 4.6 The WCED and the Environmental Debate ....................................................245 Chapter Conclusions ......................................................................................247 GENERAL CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................... 252 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 259 vi ACRONYMS, ABBREVIATIONS ANO SYMBOLS AEC Atomic Energy Commission ANT Actor Network Theory area-T.O.D. Technical Operations Department of the World Bank ASSOANE Association of Friends of Nature and the Environment CEO Chief Executive Officer CTA Constructive T echnical Assessment EDF Environmental Defense Fund EHM Economic Hit Man EPA Environmental Protection Agency FOE Friends of the Earth GDP Gross Domestic Product GMO Genetically Modified Organism GNP Gross National Product GNP/pc Per Capita Gross National Product ICSU lnternational Council of Scientific Unions IMF lnternational Monetary Fund IPO lnitial Product Offering ITESM-CCM Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey Campus Ciudad de México IRBD lnternational Bank far Reconstruction and Development IUBS lnternational Union of Biological Sciences IUCN lnternational Un ion far the Conservation of Nature NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement NGO Non-Governmental Organization NSF National Science Foundation OCF Our Common Future (the book) vii OECD Organisation far Economic Co-operation and Development SCOT Social Shaping of Technology SftP Science far the People STS Science and Technology Studies UN United Nations UNAM Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México UNDP United Nations Development Program UNEP United Nations Environment Program USA United States of America uso United States of America Dallar usos United States of America Department of State WASD World Association far Sustainable Development WCED World Commission on Environment and Development WTO World Trade Organization WWII World War II viii INTRODUCTION Given the apparently contradictory needs of economic growth and environmental conservation, it comes as no surprise that a term like "sustainable development" which aims at both ends has had such a powerful influence in contemporary discussions on the future of humankind. Since the defining of the term by the United Nations (UN) through their World Commission of Environment and Development (WCED) in 1987, participation on the theme has expanded exponentially over the past decades with world summits taking place on all continents. These culminated at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg 2002, the largest-ever event of its kind with over 21,000 participants including representatives from 191 countries and over 100 heads of state present. The meetings have been said to address the issues facing contemporary global society. Population, particularly in what are called "developing nations," continues to grow. Likewise, poverty, urbanization, economic activity and pollution are on the increase. Industrial output has jumped over fifty-fold in the past half