Sustainable development is an outcome of more than economic processes. It is an outcome of economic, social, and political processes that interact with and reinforce each other in ways that hinder or facilitate its achievement. To reach sustainable development, opportunities need to be generated, good initiatives at all levels facilitated, and stability ensured. This requires actions at local, national, and international levels. How can priorities be decided in practice? What framework is needed to ensure economic growth and an effective distribution of wealth that generates equality of opportunities? This article suggests that to accomplish sustainable development, it is not enough to evaluate the way economic development has been researched and conducted thus far. Rather, a new approach to understanding its process is needed. This new approach is an integral approach to economic development, that is, an approach that seeks to respect the dignity of the human person, strengthen the family, and foster civic and social responsibility. This, in turn, necessitates an integrated view of the person in society and, consequently, a focus on the economic agents decision process by acknowledging him or her in a holistic manner and in his or her social dimension.
Maria Sophia Aguirre, "An Integral Approach to an Economic Perspective: The Case of Measuring Impact", Journal of Markets and Morality 16, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 53-67