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-- an SWM THiNKTANK article edited: 2012-05-25 (ws), Sustainability and 'growth' (as observed and interpreted today) is a contradiction. The first term has (under today's conditions) nothing to do with the latter and vice versa. Why is this the case? First of all 'growth' (up to now and prevailing) refers to a purely quantitative growth. For example, the GDP [ 1 ], mobility growth [ 2 ], car market growth [ 3 ]-[ 6 ], profit growth [ 7 ], unemployment growth [ 8 ]. A return to growth (away from the current 'anemic growth' [ 9a ]-[ 9c ]) is reported [e.g. 9 ] which, however, may have disadvantageous consequences, i.e. another growth in CO2-emissions despite a decrease [ 10 ]. The list could easily be expanded.  The overall impression from the above brief list however is, that the society is inescapable doomed to grow, in particular (and actually exclusively) in quantitative/physical terms/dimensions. Cancer, perhaps a rather drastic neverthel...

-- an SWM THiNKTANK article   * alpha-terms : a series of attributes describing the fundamental characteristics of sustainability. edited: 2012-05-22 (ws),2012-05-23 (ws) S ustainability today is overquantified, institutionalised (suffering from inflexible conditions), technified, etc. [ 1 ]. There exists (unfortunately) a popular unidimensional belief that almost exclusively technical solutions (entities, vehicles, etc.), i.e. entities that somehow can be 'engineered' (in the broadest sense) can provide for sustainable development. Two major characteristics of sustainability are: credibility and confidence . Looking exemplary at the finance sector it is rather evident that both attributes have seriously suffered in the course of the recent social and economic developments. Reflecting on the information available to the public about the economic development, specifically the finance sector, from the more recent three to four years the following major processes/...

-- an SWM THiNKTANK article edited: 2012-05-15 (ws), 2012-05-21 (ws) humanity (humanism), confidentiality, reliability, efficiency, flexibility, durability, stability, quality, honesty, consistency,  competency, decency, transparency, legitimacy, continuity, fidelity, accuracy, (uni)versatility, plurality, (sense of) responsibility, clarity, to be complemented... fairness, confidence, esteem, tolerance, respect, appreciation, constructiveness, robustness, to be complemented... Sustainability, often - perhaps to often - quoted, was once (in context with 'development') defined as: "sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” [ 1 ]. Accordingly, such a development implies the consideration of a rather long time-span challenging well-founded, comprehensive decision making (approximately between 20 and 30 years [ 3 ], depending upon the definition). A...