Sustainability as Human and Social Development

Abstract

It is a key question of our age how to harmonise economic growth and sustainability. In general economic growth is considered to be related mostly to business activities, while sustainability concerns mostly the effects of economic operations on society and the environment.
However, sustainability is a more complex phenomenon as far as human beings are concerned. The structure of an economy determines the possibilites of human development through the quality of the available jobs. Opportunities for learning and preserving health are also determinants of human development. The article first summarises the main research findings of the scholarship on sustainability from a complex perspective. It will also explore the key results and conclusions of the most well-known sustainability reports. Then the paper continues by offering a detailed analysis of two, so far little explored aspects of sustainability, the effects of economic structure and some social characteristics on human development. The Hungarian data will be examined in international comparison. Based on the analysis it will be proved that long term economic success can not be achieved without establishing balance and harmony between even the short term economic interests and human, as well as social sustainability. The article concentrates on the little explored fields of human and social development as research fields of sustainability. Therefore the much more widely analysed and debated environmental sustainability will not be covered.