文档介绍：SUSTAINABILITY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: HISTORICAL AND CONCEPTUAL REVIEW Desta Mebratu International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund University The vagueness of the concept of sustainable development, coupled with its increasing importance in national, international and corporate policies, has led to a large political battle for inˉuence over our future by linking interpretation to the concept. This has resulted in a wide variety of de?nitions and interpreta- tions that are skewed towards institutional and group prerogatives rather pounding the essence of the concept, which has been inherent in traditional beliefs and practices. A systematic analysis of representative de?nitions and interpretations presented in this article reveals that most of the contemporary de?nitions focus on speci?c elements while failing to capture the whole spec- trum. Such a historical and conceptual analysis focusing on the analysis of the metaphorical and epistemological basis of the different de?nitions is believed to be the ?rst step towards developing a concrete bodyof theory onsustainability and sustainable development. ? 1998 Elsevier Science Inc. Introduction As we approach the end of the second millenium, we ?nd ourselves over- whelmed plexities unprecedented in humanhistory. Today, mankind has the capacity to produce far more information than anyone can absorb, to foster far greater interdependency than anyone can manage, and to accelerate change far faster than anyone's ability to keep pace (Senge 1990). Parallel to (or as a result of) this unprecedented labyrinth plexity, we have a myriad of systemic dysfunction, each with its own ecological, economic, and social dimensions without simple cause or solution. This has led to the evolution of new concepts, including that of sustainable development as a basis for ing the environmental challenges. Address requests for reprints to: Desta Mebratu, International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics