Wolfgang Sachs

Wolfgang Sachs, “The idea of development stands today like a ruin in the intellectual landscape”

Wolfgang Sachs, “The idea of development stands today like a ruin in the intellectual landscape”

Introduction

Wolfgang Sachs (born 25 November 1946) is a researcher, writer and university teacher in the field of environment, development, and globalization. He studied sociology and Catholic theology in Munich, Tubingen and Berkeley. He holds a master degree in sociology (1971), a master degree in theology (1972) and a PhD in social sciences (1975). After a period (1975-1984) as Assistant Professor at the Technical University of Berlin he joined the Society for International Development in Rome as a co-editor of the journal Development. 1987-1990 he was Visiting Professor at Pennsylvania State University and 1990-1993 Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities in Essen.

Wolfgang Sachs warns that the idea of development works as a mechanism that has the engine of wealth accumulation and has no place for social justice and for harmony with nature. The last 40 years can be called the era of development (Sachs,W, 1999). This era is coming to an end. Is the time of writing his obituary, wrote the German sociologist Wolfgang Sachs in his famous Dictionary of development? Years passed since that statement, but the idea will continue to operate and even had descendants: sustainable development. In this interview, Sachs linked to the dominant production model with environmental degradation and social injustice. We are at a historic moment of transition, he says, from societies that have lived in excess societies must learn to live in moderation (Boschi, & Gaitan, 2009).

In the last 50 years, you can find three things. First, the development was always considered in relation to the growth of GDP. Second, the GDP growth has not brought justice, indeed, has led to a polarization both within societies and between societies worldwide. Third, in this half century economic growth has led to a real wreck of the biosphere.

Discussion

Economic growth is understood as quantitative growth, without any parameters for quality. Therefore, to the extent that development is understood as an extension of the market is a mechanism that has the engine of wealth accumulation and has no place for social justice and for harmony with nature. That is, an economic efficiency tends to be completely blind. Today there is a disbelieve among the people concerning the idea of sustainable development, but it is wrong to relate the development, because development can mean anything from the construction of sewers in a rural village to the construction of skyscrapers in a big city. Development is a concept of a monumental void. Relate vacuum that category with sustainable generates enormous confusion.

The idea that there exists underdeveloped just 60 years ago, the U.S. president forged Harry Truman in 1949, and applied primarily to the Southern Hemisphere. This notion refers to an entire worldview, in which the rich countries, Euro-Atlantic, are at the forefront of civilization and progress. The process of ecological collapse and climate change that we are witnessing today shows that the division of the world had ...