On the Issues of the Structural Methodology of Sustainable Development

Abstract

The whole world, including Russia, is on the verge of a third, after the agrarian and industrial, the digital technological revolution, no less, and perhaps more fundamental, than the two previous ones. A sustainable development strategy cannot be created on the basis of traditional universal human notions and values, stereotypes of thinking. It requires the development of new scientific and ideological approaches that correspond not only to modern realities, but also to the expected development prospects in the 3rd millennium. The transition to sustainable development involves the gradual restoration of natural ecosystems to a level that ensures the sustainability of the environment, and in which there is a real possibility for future generations of people to live up to their vital needs and interests. The formulation of a new development strategy means a structural changes during gradual integration into a single self-organizing system of economic, environmental and social spheres of activity. In this sense, sustainable development implies, at a minimum, structural efficiency and compatibility of the biosphere and the new digital world, social justice with a general decrease in anthropogenic pressure on the biosphere. However, the transition to sustainable development is the only alternative to the development of mankind, since the economics of technologically advanced countries are already forming the foundations of new structural changes that radically change the place of nature-intensive industries in meeting human needs.