The sustainable growth paradigm : implications for technology and policy
Name
501821257-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
1.03 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
8892f14ad96a091eb05ba641ac7bc57d
Author(s)
Pierrakakis, Kyriakos
Advisor(s)
Nicholas A. Ashford.
Date Issued
2009
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
While some scholars continue to insist that the concept of sustainability is vague and unwieldy, this thesis seeks to explore multidimensional elements of sustainability and seeks to offer an integrative, transdisciplinary approach to policy design for its attainment. Sustainability and the related concepts of development, globalization, and economic and environmental justice are interwoven with technological, social and institutional change, and with trade as drivers of the transformation of industrial and industrializing societies. The discussion begins by an analysis of the dominant existing models of economic growth and innovation and advances to the effects of economic growth on sustainability. Included is an analysis of the limits of the GDP growth paradigm, the effects of growth on the developed and the developing world and the relationship between economic growth and ecological collapse. The focus of analysis then shifts from the domestic to the international. Trade and the International Financial System are examined both with respect to their primary theories and characteristics, but also in relation to their effects to sustainability. The discussion is then concluded by an examination of the different policy options and analytical tools that could be employed for a transition to a more sustainable economic model.
Description
Thesis (S.M. in Technology and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2009.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-109).
Subjects
Engineering Systems Division.
Technology and Policy Program.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division
Technology and Policy Program
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