8a.
Demography and population change

 

Fear for unending population growth – the population explosion – has since long been a main concern for those thinking about the future of humanity. The Englishman Thomas Malthus in An Essay on the Principle of Population from 1798 alarmed the world that food and other resources soon would not be enough for everyone and started a serious discussion on which political actions were needed to curb population growth. Today this discussion seem to be most active in the United States, where environmental impact is much perceived as the result of being too many, not that each one uses too many resources.

 

During most of human history, world population grew very slowly. On average a woman during her short life got 6 children of whom 2 survived to adulthood. This has changed as healthcare and food supply has improved. From the 18th century global population growth accelerated, with shortening doubling times, 1 billion in 1800, 2 billion in 1927, 4 billion in 1974 and 7 billion in 2011. However, since the early 1990s the rate of increase is diminishing and growth is expected to end by about 2050 at a world population of about 9 billion

Will the resources of the world be sufficient for 9 or so billion inhabitants? Is the carrying capacity enough? Most researchers believe that enough food for all will be possible. One will however have to decrease food loss, and improve agricultural productivity in many areas, not the least in Africa. However, we see land prices increase steeply in many parts of the world as an indication that the food production issue is expected to be critical.

In individual parts of the world, this development from a small population to exponential growth to finally levelling off at a higher level has already taken place. It is called the population transition. It begins when health improves, life expectancy increases and birth rate dramatically decreases. After some time, family size will shrink. An important reason for this is decreasing child mortality. It will thus not be necessary to have many children to be taken care of at an older age; as children go to school, they are also more a cost than a help in the household; and finally that families choose to have fewer children for improving their own lives. Of course, basic family planning has to be available to make these changes possible. These insights also point to what is needed to curb population growth.

 

A generation or two ago the so-called developing countries had many children per woman often about 6, and a population growth approaching 3%, while in developed, industrialized countries the figure was closer to 2.1 children, which is the replacement rate. Since then, a dramatic change has taken place. Especially in Asia, birth rates of many countries have dramatically decreased. High birth rates today only remain in Africa. In all of Europe the birth rates are lower than replacement rates and in some countries much lower, e.g. in Southern Europe. In Central and Eastern Europe, population decline is typical, both because of low birth rates and emigration.

An effect of improved health status of the population is that life expectancy is increasing. Life expectancy at birth globally was 68.3 years in 2010, but there are large regional differences. Highest is Japan with 82.6 years, while in many African countries the value is around 40 years. In Sweden in 2011 life expectancy at birth was 83.7 for women and 79.8 for men. Life expectancy is increasing with about 3 months per year in Europe, mostly because mortality at higher age is decreasing. If this development continues, living to 100 years of age will be common in the near future.

As a sustainable society in the long term cannot have a steadily increasing population, we will have an ageing society. A much larger share of the population will be retired, and a common heard concern is that fewer (in working age) will have to support many more (retired). Another concern is that costs for elderly care will increase dramatically. Very few countries have developed a policy to manage this question. Rather, many countries try to decrease average age by stimulating families to have more children or immigration. However, this is only to postpone the problem, which will reappear but at a much higher total population.

When state guaranteed pensions were introduced the retirement age was equal to average life expectancy, that is, pensions were not a large cost for the country. Today, the pension age is debated. We see proposals to increase the age of retirement coupled with efforts to encourage elderly to stay at their working places voluntarily, often on part-time and with less heavy jobs. But there may also be voluntary contributions in many sectors of society by elderly who has a considerable experience in helping young people. Examples include business angels, elderly business leaders helping younger to get started. We have also seen healthy elderly taking care of less healthy elderly. It should in addition be said that according to macroeconomic modelling the average working hours in a sustainable economy should decrease substantially compared to the norm today, the 40-hour week. In a more sustainable society, it may be enough that a smaller section of society is working.

 

Materials for session 8a

Basic level

1. Watch Hans Rosling on Global Population Growth (YouTube film)
2. Watch Hans Rosling: New insights on poverty and life around the world (YouTube film)
3. Read Demographic Development in the Baltic Sea Region
   
   EHSA, Book 3, chapter 8: Demographic Development in the Baltic Sea Region
4. The Demographic Transition by Keith Montgomery, University of Wisconsin

Medium level (widening)

5. Read Baltic Sea Region, chapter 39, pages 495-509: Populations Around the Baltic Sea.
   
   Baltic Sea Region, chapter 39: Populations Around the Baltic Sea
6. Ageing of Population by Leonid A. Gavrilov and Patrick Heuveline.

Advanced level (deepening)

7. Examine how your country is preparing for an ageing society. As examples, two documents are given:
   For Sweden from the Swedish Institute.
   For Poland from Ewa Fratczak Warsaw School of Economics.

 

References

Maciejewski, W. (ed.) 2002. The Baltic Sea Region – Cultures, Politics, Societies. Uppsala. Baltic University Press.

 

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8b.
Welfare

 

A sustainable society needs to secure human welfare. Welfare is very multidimensional and in addition different for each person, and it also depends on the society. Basic is security, health, and justice; to secure basic needs such as food; and access to education and work opportunities. Human welfare will be touched upon here and in several other sessions, in particular see also Chapter 8c, and Chapter 10 b. Welfare is an important component of the social dimension of sustainable development. Here we will attempt to define what is included in basic needs and rights. This is not similar to resource flows and other physical and biological conditions, and we will have to rely on norms, that is ethics, as first principles, rather than laws of nature.

 

A first principle is the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948. The background was the atrocities carried out during the Second World War and the need for a document establishing which values that should not be violated regardless of circumstances. It is interesting to note that the Earth Charter (not yet adopted by the UN) can be seen as an extension of the Declaration, to encompass not only humans but also all other living beings and all Nature. The General Declaration of Human Rights have been followed by several other documents e.g. on children’s rights, workers’ rights etc. The UN system has thus played, and still plays, an important role in establishing a global ethics.

The Declaration includes a number of freedoms and rights, which had been included in different declarations since the American Declaration of independence of 1776 and French Revolution of 1789. These include religious freedom, political freedom (right of speech); to this was later added sexual freedom. There are also inscribed equal rights between genders, between different ethnic groups and rights for minorities. Each human individual should thus be respected and his/her integrity protected regardless of physical, ethnic or social belonging. The Declaration of Independence says "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness".

It is obvious that these rights have not been implemented fully in any state, although differences between states are large. Especially should be mentioned that minority rights are violated repeatedly as majority groups attempt to secure their own power and privileges, which in the worst case can lead to ethnic cleansing. Gender rights are violated in many cultures where it is not customary that women decide for themselves, for their future, choice of husband or profession, and violence against women are common.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in 1966. The ICESCR, which went in force in 1976, commits its parties to work toward the granting of economic, social, and cultural rights (ESCR) to individuals, including labour rights and the right to health, the right to education, and the right to an adequate standard of living. In 2011, the Covenant had 160 parties. The covenant should be seen as a political agreement on basic duties of a modern welfare state and is thus different from the Declaration of Human Rights – which is perceived as a global ethics always valid regardless of circumstances – although it has a similar background.

In the declaration it is assured that each human has the right to safety and health, to education and possibilities to support themselves. These three parts of a human life – care when being child or elderly; education in childhood and young years; and work to have an income and livelihood – are the basic concerns for social security. A modern welfare state safeguards social security by social insurance programs and provides socials services in case of poverty, old age, disability, unemployment, and others. The means include retirement pensions, disability insurance, and unemployment insurance, to guarantee that each citizen has access to necessities such as food, clothing, housing as well as medical care and social work. The right to social security is recognized both in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Convent on Economic, Social and Cultural rights.

Not everyone can easily adjust to society. A certain percentage (estimated to be about 7% in some societies) suffer from minor or major physical, mental or social handicaps. Also, these individuals need to be taken care of. A smaller or sometimes larger sector of the population live their lives outside established norms. We have crimes; use of drugs, alcoholism; or simply individuals staying outside the established society. Each society has mechanisms to deal with these individuals; but again one should emphasize that also here basic human rights should be respected.

 

Materials for session 8b

Basic level

1. History of Universal Human Rights up to WW2 by Moira Rayner.
2. The Creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Peter Bailey.
3. Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
4. Read Population and Living Standards.
   
   Baltic Sea Region, chapter 40: Population and Living Standards
5. Read Women and Gender in History in the Baltic Region
   
   Baltic Sea Region, chapter 42: Women and Gender in History in the Baltic region

Medium level (widening)

6. Read Work and Unemployment.
   
   Baltic Sea Region, chapter 44: Work and Unemployment
7. Read Economic Development and Work Opportunities in Rural BSR.
   
   EHSA, Book3, chapter 9: Economic Development and Work Opportunities in Rural BSR
8. Read Use and Abuse of Tobacco, Alcohol and Narcotics – a Baltic Dilemma.
   
   Baltic Sea Region, chapter 45: Use and Abuse of tobacco, alcohol and narcotics – a Baltic dilemma

Advanced level (deepening)

9. Examine how your country’s social security is organized.
   
   

References

Karlsson, I and L. Rydén (eds.). 2012. Rural Development and Land Use. Ecosystem Health and Sustainable Agriculture: Book 3. Baltic University Press. Uppsala.

Maciejewski, W. (ed.) 2002. The Baltic Sea Region – Cultures, Politics, Societies. Baltic University Press, Uppsala.

 

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8c.
Social sustainability, happiness and the one-planet-life

 

What do we mean by socially sustainable? Leanne Barron and Erin Gauntlett at Murdoch University of Western Australia say that “Socially sustainable communities are equitable, diverse, connected and democratic and provide a good quality of life.” Is this possible? Will basic human needs be satisfied in a society where the outer conditions is determined by the carrying capacity of the planet and the possibilities of other life forms to thrive as well? Will the inhabitants of a sustainable society be happy and well, or poor and needy? In this sub-session we will examine issues related to the individual. In Chapter 9 on the The political dimensions of sustainability we will look at the issues from the perspective of the society.

The transition to a sustainable society requires that we live a one-planet-life. We need to reduce our consumption of resources to those available in the long term, to the carrying capacity of the planet. This will certainly include a number of technical adjustments, such as houses needing less heating, and cars not running on fossil fuels. But it will also require changes in lifestyles. An example is the Swedish family, which experimentally got all the technical devices in a new house (low energy house with solar panel and PV cells) to live a low carbon life. When it was time for ski vacation the air trip to the Alps was not allowed within the carbon budget. They had to take the train to the Swedish mountains. Not necessarily worse, but a change. Nor was it possible to use the private car for commuting to work, but rather public transport and biking, and they had fewer dinners with steaks, and had to be more careful with waste sorting.

Basic human needs have been much researched. The model proposed by American psychologist Abraham Maslow already in the 1940s includes five levels of needs: first physiological needs, such as food, water and air; next the individual's safety and security such as personal security, financial security, health and well-being; thirdly social needs including feelings of belongingness, friendship, intimacy, and family; fourth, the need to be respected and to have self-esteem and self-respect; and finally self-actualization: “What a man can be, he must be”. Viktor Frankl, with experience from the holocaust, later added self-transcendence, spiritual needs. Chilean philosopher Manfred Max-Neef, as well as others, have later criticized the level structure and argued that fundamental human needs are non-hierarchical.

From a sustainability perspective it is relevant to observe that none of these needs refer to having many things, consumerism, or travelling over the world, or other parts of modern life which consumes many resources. Also in research on energy use it is clear that what people appreciate the most consumes least energy. Thus being with friends and family or the loved one does not cost much energy, while daily commuting to work, which takes much energy, is not popular. The the world's carrying capacity may then be enough for all of us. Mahatma Gandhi in a famous statement ones said: “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for one person’s greed”, when talking on a society based on Sarvodaya — the well-being of all.

The recently developed happiness research stresses that numerous studies have clearly shown that subjective well-being and material wealth are only loosely coupled. Perceived well-being in western industrialised countries peaked around 1970 or so, while economic development and resource use has continued to increase without resulting in any increase in perceived well-being (See also Chapter 10b). Immaterial factors which contribute to quality of life – such as leisure, having meaning and purpose, relationships, social participation and self-fulfilment – become more and more important. The research area ‘Sustainable Quality of Life’ of Sustainable Europe Research Institute (SERI) stresses these positive relations between sustainable development and a high quality of life. If sustainable development policies and strategies want to be successful, they have to influence our quality of life in positive ways.

There are several indices to monitor human wellbeing. Most established might be the United Nations Human Development Index, HDI, which includes the three indicators child survival, purchasing power and education. Values of HDI are available for most countries in the world. A sustainable society is seen as a society where human well-being is high enough (HDI > 0.8) and ecological footprint low enough (<.1.8 global ha/cap) (See www.footprintnetwork.org). Other more developed indices include the Weighted Index of Social Progress, WISP, by Richard Estes to measure the amount of well-being in different societies, which uses up to 40 different indicators.

To measure of the development of a country most countries use the Gross Domestic Product GDP, which is the total economic turnover, but several alternatives have been proposed. The Genuine Progress Indicator, GPI measures whether a country's growth, increased production of goods, and expanding services have actually resulted in the improvement of the well-being of the people. In GPI negative costs, such as costs for environmental impacts, are subtracted from GDP. The Gross National Happiness, GNH, proposed in Bhutan already in the 1970s based on Buddhist ideals suggests that beneficial development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other. The four pillars of GNH are the promotion of sustainable development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance. Both GNH and GPI are based on the assumption that subjective measures like well-being are more relevant and important than more objective measures like consumption.

Many cities have developed programs for social sustainability, then referring to social and democratic reforms often with a focus on public health. There is however no consensus on what constitutes social sustainability (rather what is not included). You may say it is an attempt to develop a life pattern based on quality rather than quantity. An interesting initiative is the Cittàslow movement. Città is Italian for cities and Cittàslow refers to “slow cities.” Here the efficient fast life style is abandoned for a slower more quality-based pattern, e.g. in food (local food, not global fast food) or traffic patterns, and pursuing the unique qualities of the city. The slow cities movement exist in several countries.

The European value studies (now expanded to world value studies) is a research programme since many years repeatedly investigating the values (ethics) of different cultures and countries. The most important values are quite different in different societies. Very interesting is the analysis of so-called social capital in the countries. Social capital is understood as the trust inhabitants have in each other. It is uniquely high in the Nordic countries, while much less for Eastern and Central Europe, where trust most typically is in the family rather than in society at large. Social capital has been seen as a crucial part of social sustainability.

On the highest level in the Maslowian stairs are the spiritual needs of the individual. Spirituality has a role in a sustainable lifestyle. As we have seen transition to a sustainable society will mean a less materialistic lifestyle, a slower life pace and more time with family and friends. It will also give more importance to the connection with Nature. A sustainable society also underlines the responsibility we all have for our common planet Mother Earth and all life forms. These values may be best expressed in the Earth Charter. The spiritual realm refer to ethics and values (See Chapter 1d) and since the sustainability concept is a normative concept, it is natural to see the spiritual dimension of a society developing with sustainability.

 

Materials for session 8c

Basic level

1. One planet living by WWF
2. Your personal environmental management. Power Point by Lars Rydén, 2010
3. Read the Sustainable lifestyle report by Stockholm Environment Institute, SEI
4. Read the WWF Pocket Guide to a One Planet Lifestyle (pdf-file)
5. The Five Levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs by Kendra Cherry
6. Maslow's hierarchy of needs by Huitt, Valdosta State University (2007).

Medium level (widening)

7. Read the Overview in the Human Development Report 2011 - Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All by UNDP. p. 1-12.
8. Listen to: Costing Not Less Than Everything: sustainability and spirituality in challenging times by Pam Lunn. The Swarthmore Lecture 2011.
9. Quality-of-life research at Sustainable Europe Research Institute, SERI
10. Read Social capital and traditional-conservative values in the Baltic region
    
    Baltic Sea Region, chapter 12: Social Capital and traditional-conservative values in the Baltic region
11. Study the List of countries by distribution of wealth

Advanced level (deepening)

12. Study the Woodbrooke Good Lives Project. A Quaker community working on the social, community, psychological and spiritual dimensions of climate change, peak oil, and sustainability.
13. Study the Cittaslow cities and Transition Towns movement from the point of view of social sustainability.
14. Study the Human Development Report 2016 - Human Development for Everyone by UNDP.
15. Compare the different ways to measure progress and welfare:
    Gross Domestic Product, GDP;
    Genuine Progress Indicator, GPI;
    Gross National Happiness, GNH;
    Human Development Index, HDI and;
    Weighted Index of Social Progress, WISP.
16. The Bill by Germanwatch (YouTube film)

 

References

Gonçalves, E. 2008. The WWF Pocket Guide to a one Planet Lifestyle. WWF International. Gland, Switzerland.

Maciejewski, W. (ed.) 2002. The Baltic Sea Region – Cultures , Politics, Societies. Baltic University Press, Uppsala.

UNDP. 2011. Human Development Report 2011 - Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All. United Nations Development Programme, New York, USA.

 

BUP Sustainable Devlopment Course

 

 

9a.
Governance and democracy

 

How should a society be organised politically to approach sustainability? The basic document, which addresses this question, is the Agenda 21 from the 1992 Rio UNCED Conference. Here the importance of democracy with participation and involvement of all stakeholders in a society is underlined. Participatory democracy is thus seen as the political system under which it is possible to approach and govern a sustainable society. Democracy is also the system, which more than other systems guarantee the human values described in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There are good reasons to choose democracy. Historical experience shows that strongly centralised authoritarian systems sooner or later disregard environmental protection, good resources management and human rights to protect its own power. Examples of such mismanagement are to be found both in history and in present regimes all around the world.

 

 

Democracy as a social invention has a long history but modern democracies did not exist until about 100 years ago. Since then, with setbacks under the first and second World Wars, as well as in connection with the decolonisation in the 1960s and early 70s, democracy has been introduced in a growing number of states. Today more than half of the world population live in formal democracies with universal suffrage. Difficulties when going from an authoritarian system to democracy includes that the citizens should take responsibility, even if there is no such tradition and many rather want a “strong leader” to take care of them. On the way to democracy to reduce corruption is typically a slow and difficult process, while free media is often in the forefront.

For sustainability democracy design is crucial. The traditional representative democracy, limited to voting, has not been able to respond to all demands of sustainable development. It lacked the elements of participation, listening, mutual understanding and changing views in the political process, which is present in participatory or, more often, deliberative democracy. This on the other hand characterises governance. Governance asks for less bureaucracy and an increased distribution of responsibilities of realisation, economy and maintenance in societal issues; it is more entrepreneurial, stresses competition, markets and customers, and measures outcomes. This transformation of the public sector, the authorities, may be summarised as less government but more governance.

The authorities build institutions for the purpose of implementing their policies. Some see institutional sustainability as the equally important as environmental, social and ecological sustainability. Institutions have the task of implementing, monitoring, reporting and regulating society according to the tasks given to them by the governing decision-makers. A task of special concern for sustainable development includes monitoring, e.g. emissions of greenhouse gases, presence of chemical pollutants, development in the field of energy etc. to give decision-makers the needed background; still this monitoring and reporting is much weaker than in e.g. the financial sector.

Democracies vary in distribution of power between the local and central levels. Sustainability politics typically stresses the role of the local level, and has Local Agenda 21 as the basic document. To be successful the local level needs three competences: legal, economic and expertise. The local level should thus have enough power to regulate on the local level, exemplified by the planning monopoly, enough economic strength to execute necessary reforms, which requires a strong local taxation, and finally the expertise needed to monitor and plan for a sustainable future. City networks such as the European Sustainable Cities and Towns Campaign asks for a strong local level development and the role of good governance, illustrated by the Aalborg commitments (See further Chapter 4a).

Democratic government and implementation of the principles of democracy has been monitored in various ways. A most interesting and relevant report is published by the World Justice Project, WJP, as an “effort to strengthen the rule of law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity”. The rule of law includes four principles: that government and its officials are accountable under the law; that the laws are clear, publicized, stable and fair; that the process by which the laws are enforced is accessible, fair and efficient; and that access to justice is provided by competent, independent, and ethical adjudicators.

The Word Justice Project index monitors the rule of law in nine segments: Limited government powers; Absence of corruption; Order and security; Fundamental rights; Open government; Effective regulatory enforcement; Access to civil justice; Effective criminal justice: and Informal justice. In 2011 a total of 66 countries had been assessed and reported for. Other important monitoring bodies include Transparency International, which measures corruption in the world since more than 20 years. Corruption is in many ways an equally serious threat to the development of a country as lack of democratic institutions or even climate change, as resources intended for development is used to build private fortunes.

The right to free exchange of ideas, to assemble and to organize is essential for the democratic process. Civil society refers to all individuals and organizations in a country that is not state or authority. Civil society organizations are referred to as Non-Governmental Organizations, NGOs. Many people see the topics of sustainable development, protection of nature, and the fight against climate change, as existential questions. Here the right to organize to influence political as well as other processes in society is essential. Such organizations play a very important role in the changes we see. The possibilities to influence have increased tremendously with the access to new information technologies.

Business, which may be included in civil society or seen as a separate sector, has a key role. In a modern, western state this the private sector accounts for some 85% of the economy. From companies and employees taxes are paid to the authorities on national, regional and local levels, to make it possible for them to execute the policies agreed on in the country. Since the 1970s Western Europe, and since 1990s Central and Eastern Europe, have undergone large-scale privatizations with enormous assets originally owned by the state transferred to the private sector, e.g. trains, mines, electricity, telephone and communications. More recently we also see social services become privatized, such as healthcare, schools, elderly care etc. This means that the attitudes and projects for sustainable development in the business sector are of key importance.

As a result national, regional and local authorities increasingly do not have enough political and financial power for planning and implementing plans. To plan for future changes and to be able to implement the plans, actors and stakeholders enter into different types of coalitions, public private partnerships (PPP). These include a mix of public and private actors, each capable of bargaining on their own behalf; partners are expected to bring something to the partnership, and share responsibility for the outcomes of their activities. Disadvantages include an unclear relation of responsibility between the population and their political representatives, and an increased risk of corruption.

Another key actor in the changes a society undergoes is science. Research at universities, academy institutions, and research institutes develop our knowledge and understanding of the world. Research financers, among them the state, largely select research priorities; during the last decade sustainability research have been well financed. The research results should be under constant discussion and criticism, and controversial results should at best provoke other scientists to try to replicate, falsify or confirm. This is part of a sound scientific process. But it appears that when science results are uncomfortable enough some politicians do not want to face the consequence, they rather attack the science on which they are built, which appears to explain some climate denial.

In a living democracy it is far from enough to express your view when voting each four or so years. Media like TV, radio, and newspapers, sometimes described as the third power in a state (the other being government and the court system) has a key role in a living democracy. It allows for an ongoing public debate, proposals and arguments, as well as distributing the result of science and research. In the best case the media serves to educate the population on a daily basis, which is a key question for sustainable development. Where democratic institutions are defeated media is usually the first victim, as power holders want to control all information distributed in the country, another illustration of the connection between democracy and sustainable development.

 

Materials for session 9a

Basic level

1. Study environmental policy in Making and implementing environmental policy chapter 22 in Environmental Science, especially pp 665-684.
   
   Environmental Science, chapter 22: Making and Implementing Environmental Policy
2. Read chapter 19, pages 285-289: The historical breakthrough of democracy in: The Baltic Sea Region – Cultures, Politics, Societies.
   
   Baltic Sea Region, chapter 19: The historical breakthrough of democracy
3. Read chapter 21, pages 296-299: Territorial power distribution in: The Baltic Sea Region – Cultures, Politics, Societies.
   
   Baltic Sea Region, chapter 21: Territorial Power Distribution
4. Read chapter 22, pages 300-307: The civil society: parties and associations in: The Baltic Sea Region – Cultures, Politics, Societies.
   
   Baltic Sea Region, chapter 22: The Civil Society: parties and associations
5. Read chapter 25, pages 333-343: Malfeasance in contemporary democratic societies in: The Baltic Sea Region – Cultures, Politics, Societies.
   
   Baltic Sea Region, chapter 25: Malfeasance in Contemporary Democratic Societies
6. An Agenda for Global Responsibility The Finnish Ministry of Education and the Baltic Univeristy Programme, 2008.

Medium level (widening)

7. Study the World Justice Project in Constructing the WJP Rule of Law Index, p 7-17
8. What is good governance? By United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific, ESCAP,
9. Read on Non-governmental organizations in Global Issues

Advanced level (deepening)

10. Study the role of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in the Handbook of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for their role in SD, e.g. infrastructure development
11. Study the role of NGOs in The rise and role of NGOs in sustainable development from International Institute for Sustainable Development, IISD

 

Additional Material

Vladlena Gladchenko and Marie Thynell: The Political Dimensions of Sustainability .

 

References

Maciejewski, W. (ed.). 2002. The Baltic Sea Region – Cultures, Politics, Societies. Baltic University Press, Uppsala.

Rydén, L., Migula, P. and M. Andersson (eds.). 2003. Environmental Science - understanding, protecting and managing the environment in the Baltic Sea region. Baltic University Press, Uppsala.

 

BUP Sustainable Development Course