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IB DP Global Politics — Thematic study: Development and sustainability | SL | Development and Sustainability
📋 What You Will Learn
- Define development and sustainability and distinguish between their different dimensions
- Explain how development and sustainability are conceptually linked and where they tension each other
- Analyse the political, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development
- Compare how different theoretical perspectives interpret the relationship between development and sustainability
- Evaluate the claim that economic growth and environmental sustainability are compatible goals
- Examine the role of key actors — states, IGOs, civil society, corporations — in shaping sustainable development
🔍 Guiding Question Can the world's poorest communities achieve the development they need without accelerating the environmental crises that threaten everyone's future — and who gets to decide the terms of that trade-off?
🌍 Why This Matters In 2023, the UN Secretary-General warned that the world was "failing" on every Sustainable Development Goal, with climate change, debt crises and inequality pulling in opposite directions. Countries in the Global South, which have contributed least to carbon emissions, face the sharpest choice: industrialise to lift people out of poverty, or protect ecosystems that the world depends on. The politics of who bears the cost of sustainability sits at the heart of global politics today.
🔑 Key Concept Link This topic engages all four key concepts. Power determines who sets the terms of development and sustainability agendas. Sovereignty is at stake when international environmental agreements constrain national economic choices. Legitimacy is questioned when global institutions impose conditions on how poorer states may develop. Interdependence is the reason sustainability is a global political issue at all — environmental degradation and poverty cross borders, making no state's choices purely its own.
What Is Development?
Development is one of the most contested concepts in global politics. For much of the twentieth century it was treated as synonymous with economic growth — measured by GDP per capita. That narrow view has been challenged by theorists and practitioners who argue it misses what actually improves human lives.
📖 Definition — Development Development refers to processes of change that improve human well-being, expand freedoms and capabilities, and reduce poverty and inequality. It encompasses economic, social, political and human dimensions, and is understood differently depending on the theoretical lens applied.
Dimensions of development
- Economic development: growth in income, industrialisation, trade, and material living standards — the traditional focus of development economics.
- Social development: improvements in health, education, gender equality, and social cohesion — captured in indicators like the Human Development Index (HDI).
- Political development: the expansion of political rights, democratic participation, rule of law, and accountable governance.
- Human development: