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590 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 6 (2003)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0590 and id is 1 raw text is: PREFACE
The Power of
Unsustainable
Development:
What Is
to Be Done?
By
JUDE L. FERNANDO

6

Regardless of the state of theory and practice in sustain-
able development, there is no doubt that an ethical/
moral imperative exists to address socioeconomic
inequality and degradation of the environment. To real-
ize the goals of sustainable development, it must be lib-
erated from its embeddedness in the ideology and insti-
tutional parameters of capitalism. This calls for a
departure from the current reformist character of devel-
opment theory and the practice and articulation of an
alternative vision of political economy, as well as a politi-
cally strong commitment to realizing it. This endeavor
should be global in scope: not in an attempt to create a
homogeneous world order but rather to prevent social
diversity from being reconfigured and disciplined
according to the imperatives of capital. The state must
play a pivotal role if social transformative efforts are to
bear fruit and break through the impasse capitalism has
imposed on realizing the goals of sustainable
development.
Keywords: sustainable development; postdevelop-
mentalism; nongovernmental organiza-
tions; social justice
Sustainable, ecologically sound capitalist devel-
opment is a contradiction in terms.
-David Pepper (quoted in Adams 1990, 139)
Capitalism triumphs when it becomes identi-
fied with the state, when it is the state.
-Fernando Braudel
Jude L. Fern an do teaches political economy and sustain-
able development at the Department of Geography and
Regional Developm ent and the International College of
the University o fArizona. His research focus is economic
development and political economy, with a special
emphasis on nonprofit organizations, environment,
race, gendei and child labor, particularly in South Asia.
He is curently completing a book titled Political Econ-
omy of NGOs: Modernizing Post-Modernity (Pluto
Press). He is also working on an edited volume on micro-
credit with Katherine Rankin to be published by
Routledge.
NOTE: This article is a result of a conference sponsored
by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-
tion at the Office of Sustainable Development and
Intergovernmental Affairs, U.S. Department of
Commerce.
DOI: 10.1177/0002716203258283
ANNALS. AAPSS. 590. November 2003

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