Social Work and Sustainable Development: A Postmodern Community Development Framework

In 2002, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, world leaders faced strong skepticism and a cry from the world for more progress and results towards a more humane world. It is no secret that progress in implementing sustainable development has been extremely disappointing since the 1992 Earth Summit, with poverty deepening and environmental degradation worsening (United Nations, 2002). Under heavy pressure, world leaders pledged their commitment to sustainable development, while recognizing that poverty remained a major issue, “the deep fault line that divides human society between the rich and the poor and the ever-increasing gap between the developed and developing worlds pose a major threat to global prosperity, security and stability” (Johannesburg Declaration, 2003, p.2)