This book provides a holistic overview of the history of sustainable development in Denmark over the last fifty years, covering a host of issues central to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): ending poverty; ensuring inclusive and equitable education; reducing inequality; making cities and settlements inclusive, safe and resilient; and fostering responsible production and consumption patterns, to name a few. It argues for a new framework of sustainability history, one that is truly global in outlook. As such, it explores what truly global sustainable development would look like. It considers how economic growth has been the driver for prosperity in the global north, and considers whether sustainable development and continued economic growth are irreconcilable, and what the future of sustainable development initiatives in Denmark might look like.
Author(s): Bo Fritzbøger
Series: Sustainable Development Goals Series
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 414
City: Cham
Preface
Acknowledgements
Contents
About the Author
Abbreviations
List of Tables
Part I The Historiographical Framework
1 A Brief Conceptual History of Sustainable Development
The Economy of Natural Resources
Limits, Needs and Development
Conceptions of Temporality and Change
The World System and Its Boundaries
Summary and Perspectives
Bibliography
2 Socio-Environmental History
Ideas of Society and the Outlines of Social History
Imaginaries of Nature
Nature Historicised
History Naturalised
From Environmental History to Sustainability History
Summary and Perspectives
Bibliography
Part II Challenges to Sustainable Development Since 1970
3 People and Prosperity
The Deep Background
People
An Open Economy
Social Cohesion and Peace in Our Past
Summary and Perspectives
Bibliography
4 Multiform Dirt
Matter Out of Place
Water
Soil
Air
Workplace and Consumer Safety
Non-toxic Pollution
Summary and Perspectives
Bibliography
5 Energy and Natural Resources
Conversions of Energy to Entropy
Oil Crises and Alternative Sources of Energy
Extraction of North Sea Carbon, and Nuclear Fears
Gradual Transition to Renewable Energy Carriers
Natural Resources
Summary and Perspectives
Bibliography
6 Biosphere Integrity
Main Trends and Drivers in Landscape Change
Conservation, Protection and Restoration
Agriculture
Multifunctional Forestry
Fishery and Fish Farming
Biodiversity Losses, Rewilding and Invasive Species
Summary and Perspectives
Bibliography
7 Climate Change
The Problem
Appreciating the Greenhouse
Building Models
Danish Climate Change Politics
Anthropocene?
Summary and Perspectives
Bibliography
Part III Seedbeds for Solutions
8 Contested Scientific Knowledge
Reality and Knowledge
Circulation of Knowledge
Environmental Issues in the Media
Controversies and Alternative Thought Collectives
Summary and Perspectives
Bibliography
9 Politics and Policies of Sustainability
Politics, Power and Policy
General Trends in Danish Environmental Politics
Global Environmental Governance
Main Political Positions on the Environment
Positions of Danish Political Parties
Can Politics Be Sustainable?
Summary and Perspectives
Bibliography
10 Economy and Economics in the Quest for Sustainability
Imaginaries of the Economy
Danish economic development
Third World Development
Endless Growth?
Sustainability Metrics
Environmental Economics
Green Growth or Degrowth
Summary and Perspectives
Bibliography
11 Technological Innovation
Historical Imaginaries of Technology
Danish Technology Policy Since 1970
Green Fixes Great and Small
Sustainability Concerns in Planning Future Infrastructure
Summary and Perspectives
Bibliography
12 Everyday Environmentalism and “the Good Life”
Green Movements Before the Age of Ecology
Politicised Grassroots
Consumer Activism
Sustainable Living Practices
Summary and Perspectives
Bibliography
Part IV How Far Have We Come, and Where Do We Go from Here?
13 National Affluence and/or Global Sustainability?
Denmark’s National Performance
National Contributions to the Global Performance
Pandemic
Disruption
In Lieu of a Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
