IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v200y2022ics092180092200194x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability and development through the humanistic lens of Schumacher and Sen

Author

Listed:
  • Martins, Nuno Ornelas

Abstract

A particularly visible aspect of multidimensional approaches to human development and ecological boundaries has been the elaboration of various types of indicators. But such an activity has often proceeded without much scrutiny of: (i) the theory and philosophy that underpins the multidimensional conception expressed through those indicators; and (ii) the socio-economic structure behind those indicators. This article addresses those questions, through a comparison of two authors who pioneered multidimensional approaches aimed at a more humane and sustainable approach to development: A. K. Sen, who focused essentially on human development; and E. F. Schumacher, who also advocated a humane approach to development, but within a conception where ecological sustainability is at the core of the analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Martins, Nuno Ornelas, 2022. "Sustainability and development through the humanistic lens of Schumacher and Sen," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:200:y:2022:i:c:s092180092200194x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107532
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092180092200194X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107532?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Avi J. Cohen, 2003. "Retrospectives: Whatever Happened to the Cambridge Capital Theory Controversies?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 199-214, Winter.
    2. J�rôme Pelenc & Minkieba Kevin Lompo & J�rôme Ballet & Jean-Luc Dubois, 2013. "Sustainable Human Development and the Capability Approach: Integrating Environment, Responsibility and Collective Agency," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 77-94, February.
    3. Johan Rockström & Will Steffen & Kevin Noone & Åsa Persson & F. Stuart Chapin & Eric F. Lambin & Timothy M. Lenton & Marten Scheffer & Carl Folke & Hans Joachim Schellnhuber & Björn Nykvist & Cynthia , 2009. "A safe operating space for humanity," Nature, Nature, vol. 461(7263), pages 472-475, September.
    4. Martha C. Nussbaum, 2019. "Preface: Amartya Sen and the HDCA," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 124-126, April.
    5. Joan Robinson, 1953. "The Production Function and the Theory of Capital," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 21(2), pages 81-106.
    6. Nuno Ornelas Martins, 2020. "Human Development: Which Way Now?," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 404-418, April.
    7. Paul Cammack, 2017. "The UNDP, the World Bank and Human Development through the World Market," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35(1), pages 3-21, January.
    8. Wagner, Alfred, 1891. "Marshall's Principles of Economics," History of Economic Thought Articles, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, vol. 5, pages 319-338.
    9. Nuno Martins, 2007. "Ethics, Ontology and Capabilities," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(1), pages 37-53.
    10. John B. Davis, 2012. "The change in Sraffa's philosophical thinking," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 36(6), pages 1341-1356.
    11. Pasinetti,Luigi, 1993. "Structural Economic Dynamics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521432825, September.
    12. Julie A. Nelson, "undated". "Beyond Small-Is-Beautiful: A Buddhist and Feminist Analysis of Ethics and Business," GDAE Working Papers 04-01, GDAE, Tufts University.
    13. Sen, Amartya K, 1978. "On the Labour Theory of Value: Some Methodological Issues," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 2(2), pages 175-190, June.
    14. Smith, Adam, 1776. "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number smith1776.
    15. Nuno Martins, 2006. "Capabilities as causal powers," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 30(5), pages 671-685, September.
    16. Ronald L. Meek, 1961. "Mr. Sraffa'S Rehabilitation Of Classical Economics1," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 8(2), pages 119-136, June.
    17. Amartya Sen, 2013. "The Ends and Means of Sustainability," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 6-20, February.
    18. Martins, Nuno, 2011. "Sustainability economics, ontology and the capability approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-4.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Purvis, Ben & Genovese, Andrea, 2023. "Better or different? A reflection on the suitability of indicator methods for a just transition to a circular economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    2. Daneshwar Sharma & Saumyaranjan Sahoo & Ashwani Kumar & Donald Huisingh & Dheeraj Sharma, 2023. "Corporate Nirvana: The Buddhist way to social sustainability and business innovation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5289-5313, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martins, Nuno Ornelas, 2021. "The economics of biodiversity: Accounting for human impact in the biosphere," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    2. Demals, Thierry & Hyard, Alexandra, 2014. "Is Amartya Sen's sustainable freedom a broader vision of sustainability?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 33-38.
    3. Ballet, Jérôme & Marchand, Lucile & Pelenc, Jérôme & Vos, Robin, 2018. "Capabilities, Identity, Aspirations and Ecosystem Services: An Integrated Framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 21-28.
    4. Yoann Verger, 2018. "First steps for a Sraffian ecological economics. An answer to Martins' “The Classical Circular Economy, Sraffian Ecological Economics and the Capabilities Approach”," Working Papers hal-01700228, HAL.
    5. J. Barkley Rosser, 2020. "Austrian themes and the Cambridge capital theory controversies," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 415-431, December.
    6. Ballet, Jérôme & Bazin, Damien Jérôme Albert & Komena, Boniface K., 2020. "Unequal capabilities and natural resource management: The case of Côte d’Ivoire," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    7. Nuno Ornelas Martins, 2013. "Classical Surplus Theory and Heterodox Economics," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(5), pages 1205-1231, November.
    8. G. C. Harcourt, 2015. "On the Cambridge, England, Critique of the Marginal Productivity Theory of Distribution," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 47(2), pages 243-255, June.
    9. Mabsout, Ramzi, 2015. "Mindful capability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 86-97.
    10. Ballet, Jérôme & Koffi, Jean-Marcel & Pelenc, Jérôme, 2013. "Environment, justice and the capability approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 28-34.
    11. Mazouch, P. & Krejčí, I., 2016. "The Analysis of the Age Structure of Regional Fixed Capital in the Agriculture," AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 8(2), pages 1-13, June.
    12. Tsoulfidis, Lefteris & Alexiou, Constantinos & Parthenidis, Thanasis, 2015. "Revisiting profit persistence and the stock market in Japan," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 10-24.
    13. Andreas Pyka & Uwe Cantner & Alfred Greiner & Thomas Kuhn (ed.), 2009. "Recent Advances in Neo-Schumpeterian Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12982.
    14. Giuseppe Fontana & Bill Gerrard, 2006. "The future of Post Keynesian economics," BNL Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 59(236), pages 49-80.
    15. Veneziani, Roberto & Yoshihara, Naoki, 2014. "One million miles to go: taking the axiomatic road to defining exploitation," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2014-10, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    16. Birkin, Frank & Polesie, Thomas, 2013. "The relevance of epistemic analysis to sustainability economics and the capability approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 144-152.
    17. Yara Zeineddine, 2021. "Institutional Aspects of Capital in Joan Robinson's 'Rules of the Game': Rentier versus Entrepreneurs in Managerial Capitalism," Working Papers hal-03230146, HAL.
    18. Fix, Blair, 2018. "The aggregation problem: Implications for ecological economics," Working Papers on Capital as Power 2018/03, Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism.
    19. Marco Setti & Matteo Garuti, 2018. "Identity, Commons and Sustainability: An Economic Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-12, February.
    20. Blair Fix, 2021. "How the rich are different: hierarchical power as the basis of income size and class," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 403-454, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:200:y:2022:i:c:s092180092200194x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.