Sustainability in Transforming Societies : Proceedings of the 26th Annual Conference of the International Sustainable Development Research Society : Proceedings of abstracts and papers

Abstract

... The special topic of this year’s conference, namely ’Sustainability in Transforming Societies’ has been chosen to reflect upon the most important trends in today’s societies all around the world and their implications for the notion of Sustainable Development, which entered the scientific discourse more than thirty years ago. These trends, including, but not limited to shifts in demographics and the polarization evident in many societies; the impacts of rapid technological innovation including the digitisation of the economy; the shifting centres of economic power and the spread of new business models, as well as resulting changes in lifestyles raise many questions. Are the underlying principles of Sustainable Development still valid? Are the tools developed over these years still adequate? Have the problems themselves changed over the years? What have we achieved and can we now foresee a better future? We have stressed the timeliness and importance of these questions more times than one can count. And change we can see: businesses question their core competencies, governments implement innovative policy tools and more and more people turn to sustainable lifestyles. But are these changes enough? Can we preserve what is good and repair what is flawed? Can we build a prosperous future for everyone in the long run? As scientists, our task is to ask and re-ask these questions until we find the right answers to them. We have to discuss and debate, to prove and persuade for which we need platforms such as the annual conferences of ISDRS. ...