Dematerialisation,
Employment and Globalisation
Paper to
be presented at the Fifth Biennial Conference of the International Society
for Ecological Economics:
"Beyond Growth: Policies and Institutions for Sustainability",
Santiago de Chile, 15-20 November 1998
Abstract
Competitiveness, employment and the preservation of eco-systems are the main goals of the "magic triangle" of sustainability, a term that made a career from a general call for linking development and environmental concerns to the key paragraphs of national and international legislation. Some empirical data will be presented (for Germany). All three goals are related to securing the development conditions of economic, social and environmental systems. This paper discusses the three goals and stresses the interrelations. It is shown that the institutional setting behind economic and social processes is decisive and can be formulated as a "fourth corner". In the context of globalization, an international perspective is important in all three (four) aspects. Key elements for an integrated policy for Sustainable Development will be presented. It is emphasized that a policy aimed at sustainable development, understood as the simultaneous achievement of competetiveness, employment and dematerialization, must address micro-, meso-, macro-, as well as meta-level problems.
KEYWORDS: Competitiveness, dematerialisation, globalisation, employment,
growth, jobs, ecological economics.
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