Around 20 organisations and other researchers will jointly write a compendium with the call "On Earth we want to live". The aim is to make contributions to sustainable development visible. Contributions that can be seen as <sustainable natives>, from organisations such as Weleda that were already working towards sustainable development before it became topical in the wider economy. What drives these organisations? And how does the anthroposophically inspired view of the world and people play a role in the background? The main authors of this research will then attempt to present an expanded definition of sustainable development.
Background
The socio-ecological crisis characterises global society and the relationship between the earth and mankind. It poses an acute existential threat to us all. Current events appear to be increasingly culminating in dramatic events; the earth is breaking up and human dignity is being widely violated. The awareness that we are facing this state of affairs has been around for several centuries (von Humboldt, 1801), has been on the political and scientific agenda for 50 years (e.g. Carson, 1962. Meadows et al, 1972. Brundtlandt, 1987. Steffen et al. 2015), but has only come to the fore in the broad public debate in recent years (e.g. António Guterres, COP25, 2019). Reflection on this socio-ecological crisis now runs through all dimensions, areas and therefore specialist and research disciplines; the issue is overarching, transdisciplinary and universal. The analysis of the current situation has already been done many times and has been present for a long time. But how do we get to the next steps? Where is sustainability already being lived and practised?
Contributions from anthroposophy
In the last 100 years, anthroposophy has made both spiritual-scientific (e.g. Steiner, Wachsmuth, Pfeiffer, Wegman, etc.) and practical contributions to this question. Despite the pioneering influence and character of these contributions (e.g. the biodynamic agriculture of 1924, which belongs to the avant-garde of socio-ecological agriculture), they have been regarded as aberrant by the general public and society and have gone largely unnoticed in their importance for the environmental movement (McKanan, 2017).
In response to our current situation, however, calls for a more differentiated understanding and action instead of a reductionist understanding and exclusively technical measures are becoming louder. To mark its 50th anniversary in 2018, the <Club of Rome> (known for its famous 1972 publication "Limits to Growth") published the report "Come on! Capitalism, Short-Termism, Population and the Destruction of the Planet: Report to the Club of Rome". On the one hand, this publication describes the material predicament in which the earth and therefore humans find themselves, with the latter destroying ecosystems and exponentially consuming our natural resources without initiating natural material cycles. It is also argued that the socio-ecological crisis has a philosophical and spiritual dimension that, if not addressed and deepened, makes a "systemic" solution impossible (Wijkman and Weizsäcker, 2018). Long-standing environmental activists such as Paul Kingsnorth also unexpectedly come to a similar conclusion (Kingsnorth, 2018). This thesis should be understood as an appeal to those individuals and institutions who work in the dimensions of philosophy and the humanities, but also to those who are active deep into economic life. Many people can therefore feel addressed.
Sustainable development - spread and deepen
Existing definitions of sustainable development are often limited to meeting the basic needs of present and future generations in terms of the three dimensions of ecology and the environment, social and societal life and the economic dimension (Brundtland, 1987). Essentially, however, sustainable "development" addresses something deeply human in a fourth dimension of the cultural: "The idea of sustainable development is essentially a cultural project. Sustainable development describes a further step in the evolution of human civilisation towards a world in which the dignity and development opportunities of people everywhere are the compass for social, political and economic action today and in the future." (Schneidewind, 2018). This fourth dimension is considered in this research and supplemented by a further, fifth dimension, with which the anthroposophical view of the world and human being comes into dialogue and places the concept of development at the centre.
Aim of the compendium
The aim of the compendium is therefore, on the one hand, to make visible concrete practical contributions to sustainable development by companies and organisations (sustainable natives and best practices) that lead to a resilient and sustainable way of dealing with the earth and people. On the other hand, we will look at how the anthroposophical view of the world and the human being provides certain values, criteria and a basis for these practical contributions. The third step is an attempt to conceptualise an expanded understanding of sustainable development.
Outlook
The research will be completed in March 2025 and the publication will appear digitally and in print. Most organisations have already joined; if you are interested in participating as a case study, best practice or sustainable native, please feel free to contact us.