Sustainable Development: The Search for the Tipping Point

Sustainable Development. Literature indicates the need for an authoritative definition of sustainable development. Sustainable Human Development is analyzed through the lens of Gladwell’s The Tipping Point as a framework for guiding ethical development practice and instigating changes in human behavior. “We all want to believe that the key to making an impact on someone lies with the inherent quality of the ideas we present ” (Gladwell, 2000, p. 131). Author Malcolm Gladwell argues in The Tipping Point that more is involved in effecting change than simply having a good idea. The Tipping Point is the moment of sudden change when messages take hold and alter behavior. Gladwell views change from an epidemiological perspective. Given that “epidemics are a function of the people who transmit infectious agents, the infectious agent itself, and the environment in which the infectious agent is operating ” (Gladwell, 2000, p. 18), he posits three basic rules for tipping ideas or making change happen: (a) the stickiness factor, wherein memorable messages are packaged to make them personal and practical; (b) the power of context, in which behavior is a function of social context and ideas can spread by adjusting details of the immediate environment; and (c) the law of the few, which argues that a very smal