Introduction

Every new quantitative semantic analysis of mass media and scientific literature in economics and ecology, and lately, in the field of sociology, political science and international law, has shown that „sustainable development” has become one of the most frequently used syntagms. Moreover, like mushrooms after the rain: organisations, research institutes, centres or departments in the state administration are being established getting this syntagm in their names. Regardless of the main topic, there is almost no international conference where „sustainable development” is not mentioned, at least in some digression! Obviously, people have become universally conscious that for some reason „development” can become „unsustainable”! And while there prevails a consensus that development implies „economic development” (what is, of course, wrong and is most often reduced to economic growth, what is wrong, too) there are very different opinions on the factors that make that „economic development” sustainable or unsustainable. Therefore, the following relevant questions are being asked: is the syntagm „sustainable development” sustainable, both semantically and conceptually, should it be abandoned, and what should replace it?

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