Article
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Machiavellianism in Mainstream Sustainability and Development: Re-imagining Alternative Futures through Empowerment
Version 1
: Received: 14 December 2023 / Approved: 15 December 2023 / Online: 15 December 2023 (08:23:30 CET)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Adler, C.M. Re-Imagining Alternative Futures through Empowerment. Challenges 2024, 15, 8. Adler, C.M. Re-Imagining Alternative Futures through Empowerment. Challenges 2024, 15, 8.
Abstract
Despite concepts of human flourishing, a term connected to empowerment that acts as an archi-tectural structure within the development and sustainability discourse, tensions remain between exponential economic growth, planetary health and community empowerment. Scholars argue that the development agenda is maldevelopment due to the unrequested interventions delivered to communities, mainly in the Global South (Shiva, 1999). A current state of disorientation grips the modern world, and despite sophisticated global frameworks like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), internal approaches are side-lined. This research article repositions empowerment and compassion at the centre of the sustainable development discourse by drawing on the Inner Development Framework, particularly goal one – Being – ‘Relationship to Self’ and goal three – Relating – ‘Caring for others and the World’ as a guiding theoretical underpinning. Accordingly, this research article presents a qualitative interpretative study that examines the lived experience of women and their journeys to empowerment. The key findings indicate an intricate relationship between wellbeing and empowerment and the realisation of inner development as a tool to re-imagine alternative futures. The Machiavellian tendency to the sustainability agenda is deeply embedded in the profiteering of the misery of affected communities.
Keywords
Inner development; empowerment; caring for others and the world; sustainability
Subject
Social Sciences, Other
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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