A Value-based Approach to Sustainability: The Role of Values and Culture in the Pursuit of Wealth

Abstract

This article proposes social economics as an effective means of balancing the need to establish normative principles for global governance with the need to establish regulatory policies for stabilizing the global economy and safeguarding the global public interests. Such values and principles play an important role in reconciling the dichotomy between development plans that focus on increasing prosperity and those advocating improving overall human well-being. The article offers a theoretical overview of economic value theory and the development of social economic theory. The article then points out why this model would be especially beneficial if applied to sustainable development in India. Complicating the challenge is the fact that there are vast differences in conceptions of economics, the relationship of the market to the state, and the role of cultural values in economic development. This article argues that a sociological approach to economic development provides the means for reconciling the vast differences in conceptions of the role of culture and values in economic strategies for societal flourishing. This is especially true in terms of its ability to reconcile the dichotomy between development as increased production, consumption, and profits as compared to development as a current (updated) manifestation of deeply rooted cultural values.