The Systemic Dimension of Sustainable Development in Developing Countries

Relations between Agri-Environmental, Economic and Social Dimensions of Farms’ Sustainability

“…According to them, economic and ecological components should be considered together, including their interplay, because finally they constitute one system. A similar view is represented by Ciegis et al [4], Jiliberto [40] and Bardy et al [35] (after Kahuthu [41]). Sadok et al [42] (p. 163) point to a similar problem, highlighting that in order to assess sustainability in a realistic way, we need "the integration of diverse information concerning economic, social and environmental objectives; and the handling of conflicting aspects of these objectives as a function of the views and opinions of the individuals involved in the assessment process".…”

“…Many publications suggest widening the perspective in order to cover more dimensions than just social, economic, and environmental dimensions. It is quite popular to add an institutional component [33][34][35]. Some authors go a step further, covering more than four dimensions-for instance Seghezzo [36] suggested using five dimensions: "place" understood in terms of nature, culture and politics, and additionally "permanence" and "persons".…”

“…For instance, it is disputable whether low levels of one dimension (for example, environment) can be compensated by high levels in another dimension (usually economic). It is a common problem in calculating aggregated indicators [4,31,35,42]. This approach leads to the use of the "weak sustainability" approach.…”

Between the Social and Economic Dimensions of Sustainability in Rural Areas—In Search of Farmers’ Quality of Life

“…The fundamental issue for sustainable development is to take care of the natural environment, as its quality determines the conditions of life, and even survival, of humankind [5][6][7]. Even though the sustainability concept puts emphasis on keeping the natural environment in good shape as a condition for the survival of our civilisation, [4,7,8], in fact the theoretical model illustrating the concept is based on three pillars of sustainability: ecological, economic, and social [4,7,[9][10][11][12][13]. Consequently, contrary to the neoclassical paradigm of economic growth, the paradigm of sustainability assumes the necessity to consider three types of goals while considering development plans-that is, economic, social, and environmental goals [4,9,11].…”

“…Consequently, contrary to the neoclassical paradigm of economic growth, the paradigm of sustainability assumes the necessity to consider three types of goals while considering development plans-that is, economic, social, and environmental goals [4,9,11]. The three-dimensional structure of the sustainability concept allows and understanding of the interdependencies occurring between differing aspects of life in the course of economic and social development, putting an emphasis on the need to find a balance between obtaining various, even contradicting, goals [13][14][15][16][17]. As a result, the theory of sustainable development is still discussed, and authors dispute differing approaches.…”