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Chapter 23
MULTIPLE CRITERIA DECISION
ANALYSIS AND SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
Giuseppe Munda Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona Department of Economics and Economic History, Edifici B and Institute for Environmental Sciences and Technologies 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain giuseppe.munda@uab.es
Abstract
Keywords:
Sustainable development is a multidimensional concept, including socio-eco- nomic, ecological, technical and ethical perspectives. In making sustainability policies operational, basic questions to be answered are sustainability of what and whom? As a consequence, sustainability issues are characterised by a high degree of conflict. The main objective of this Chapter is to show that multiple- criteria decision analysis is an adequate approach for dealing with sustainability conflicts at both micro and macro levels of analysis. To achieve this objective, lessons, learned from both theoretical arguments and empirical experience, are reviewed. Guidelines of “good practice” are suggested too.
Sustainable development, economics, complex systems, incommensurability, so- cial choice, social multi-criteria evaluation.
954 MULTIPLE CRITERIA DECISION ANALYSIS
1. The Concept of Sustainable Development
In the eighties, the awareness of actual and potential conflicts between economic growth and the environment led to the concept of “sustainable development”. Since then, all governments have declared, and still claim, their willingness to pursue economic growth under the flag of sustainable development although of- ten development and sustainability are contradictory terms. The concept of sus- tainable development has wide appeal, partly because it does not set economic growth and environmental preservation in sharp opposition. Rather, sustainable development carries the ideal of a harmonisation or simultaneous realisation of economic growth and environmental concerns. For example Barbier [6, p.103] writes that sustainable development implies: “to maximise simultaneously^1 the biological system goals (genetic diversity, resilience, biological productivity), economic system goals (satisfaction of basic needs, enhancement of equity, in- creasing useful goods and services), and social system goals (cultural diversity, institutional sustainability, social justice, participation)”. This definition cor- rectly points out that sustainable development is a multidimensional concept, but as our everyday life teaches us, it is generally impossible to maximise dif- ferent objectives at the same time, and as formalised by multi-criteria decision analysis, compromise solutions must be found. Let us try to clarify some fundamental points of the concept of “sustainable development”. In economics by “development” is meant “the set of changes in the economical, social, institutional and political structure needed to imple- ment the transition from a pre-capitalistic economy based on agriculture, to an industrial capitalistic economy” [15]. Such a definition of development has two main characteristics:
The changes needed are not only quantitative (like the growth of gross domestic product), but qualitative too (social, institutional and political).
There is only a possible model of development, i.e. the one of western industrialised countries. This implies that the concept of development is viewed as a process of cultural fusion toward the best knowledge, the best set of values, the best organisation and the best set of technologies.
Adding the term “sustainable” to the “set of changes” (the first point) means adding an ethical dimension to development. The issue of distributional equity, both within the same generation (intra-generational equity, e.g. the North-South conflict) and between different generations (inter-generational equity) becomes crucial [61]. Going further, a legitimate question could be raised [2]: sustainable development of what and whom? Norgaard [71, p.11] writes: “consumers want consumption sustained, workers want jobs sustained. Capitalists and socialists have their ‘isms’, while aristocrats and technocrats have their ‘cracies’”.
