Governance, institutions and sustainability

5 Novembro 2021, 14:00 • João Guerra

Professor Filipe Duarte Santos started by presenting a historical treatise on the course that has led us to the current societal challenges. For a long period of time, humanity existed without the notions of “growth” or “progress” as part of their main goal or objectives. However, Modernism intellectual contests reprioritized the debate, putting humans’ development at the centre stage. This re-organised the priorities into society, henceforth, the living standards improved, societies got more prosperous and economic growth became intertwined with societal progress. The “great acceleration” boosted the prosperity process and economic growth, intensified by the adoption of Neo-liberal mainstream economics theories.The neoclassical theory of economic growth considers that stable and continued economic growth depends only on the combination of 3 factors - labour, capital and technology. Technology development became the mantra of any problem solving for contemporary society. One example of technological progress was the use and adoption of fossil fuel and the main energy matrix which led to further technological progress.