Sustainability and Well-Being in Under-Globalized Countries: Post-Pandemic Perspectives

This paper explores how globalisation and sustainability influence well-being in the period following the COVID-19 pandemic, paying particular attention to countries with limited integration into global systems. The pandemic brought numerous economic and social weaknesses into sharp focus, prompting a renewed discussion around the importance of sustainable development in supporting recovery efforts. A central aim of the research is to understand the extent to which economic globalisation and sustainability measures have shaped living standards and financial resilience in the aftermath of the crisis. In the “Literature Review” section, the study undertakes a thorough bibliometric examination of existing academic sources, identifying both newer lines of inquiry and longstanding theoretical contributions that continue to shape the discourse. Noteworthy among these are the works of Goodland (1995) on environmental sustainability, Scoones (2007) on the conceptual landscape of sustainability, and Tisdell (2001), who links globalisation to environmental and trade-related dynamics through the lens of the Environmental Kuznets Curve. By adopting this bibliometric perspective, the study maps out how thinking around globalisation and sustainability has evolved, both conceptually and in practice. Particular emphasis is placed on how these themes have been reinterpreted in light of the global health crisis. A comparative approach is also employed to investigate how differing levels of globalisation influence the effectiveness of sustainability policies, using selected case studies drawn from less-globalised national contexts. The research is further strengthened by an econometric analysis designed to uncover how sustainability initiatives interact with macroeconomic variables in the post-pandemic landscape. Panel data models are applied to capture both temporal trends and country-specific nuances, offering a more grounded understanding of how nations are managing the shift towards more sustainable economic models in the face of recovery-related pressures.