Sustainable Development Revisited: Rethinking Growth-Centric Paradigms Through the Lens of the Sabbath
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This paper argues that the current growth-centric paradigm of sustainable development is fundamentally flawed and proposes a paradigm shift towards the biblical concept of the Sabbath. It critiques the internal contradictions of the SDGs and challenges the unsustainable pursuit of infinite growth in addressing social and ecological crises. By exploring Sabbath's principles of rest, recalibration, and redistribution, the paper offers an ethical foundation for self-limitation and a basis for human identity beyond productivity—addressing the shortcomings of the degrowth movement. It proposes practical applications of Sabbath principles at individual, community, and structural levels, drawing upon empirical examples to demonstrate their potential as pathways to environmental justice. These multi-level applications aim to bridge the gap between the intentions of international agreements and impactful local action. The paper concludes that Sabbath presents a transformative vision for sustainable development and environmental justice, fostering a harmonious relationship between humanity and the planet. Keywords: Sustainability, Development, Sabbath, Degrowth, Capitalism, Environmental Justice, Poverty, Well-being, Ethics, Religion.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.010 | 0.006 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.007 | 0.078 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.009 | 0.011 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.012 |
| Research integrity | 0.004 | 0.010 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".