Sustainability and the social sciences : a cross-disciplinary approach to integrating environmental considerations into theoretical reorientation / edited by Egon Becker and Thomas Jahn.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Becker, Egon.

Jahn, Thomas, 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sustainable development.

Social sciences.

Physical Description:

xvi, 336 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Paris : MOST/UNESCO ; Frankfurt am Main : ISOE ; London ; New York : Zed Books ; New York : Distributed in the USA exclusively by St. Martin's Press, 1999.

Summary:

This multi-authored volume explores the complex terrain of the interface between the social sciences and environmental research. The contributors come from a range of disciplines: Economics, Sociology, Geography, Political Science and Psychology. They share two broad assumptions: on the one hand, the intellectual reality that continuing attempts at theoretical development remain the lifeblood of the social sciences, and on the other, the planetary reality that environmental questions will increasingly dominate humanity in the course of the coming century. This reality holds out the opportunity, and indeed the practical necessity, of stimulating both important new lines of theoretical development within the social sciences and new forms of intellectual cooperation across them.

Taking sustainability as the potential common term of reference, the authors see it not as some talisman opening the road to a unifying paradigm, but instead as a generator of problems to which responses must be found.

Contents:

1 Exploring Uncommon Ground: Sustainability and the Social Sciences / Egon Becker, Thomas Jahn, Immanuel Stiess 1

Social sciences and the debate on sustainable development 1

Analytical, normative and political implications of sustainability 4

Towards a working definition of sustainability 6

A social trajectories view for discourse-oriented policies 8

Reorienting the social sciences 10

Making the research process more inclusive 12

Part I Sustainability: Its Cognitive Power for Emerging Fields of Knowledge 23

2 Social Sustainability and Whole Development: Exploring the Dimensions of Sustainable Development / Ignacy Sachs 25

From economic growth to 'whole' development 28

The controversy over growth 30

Partial sustainabilities and whole sustainability 31

3 Sustainability and Territory: Meaningful Practices and Material Transformations / Henri Acselrad 37

Environment and territory in the social sciences 39

Sustainability and socio-political contexts: actors and projects in the hegemonic struggle 44

Sustainability as an object of symbolical struggle 49

Final considerations 55

4 Sustainability and Sociology: Northern Preoccupations / Michael Redclift 59

Sustainable development 59

The limitations of social constructionism 64

Beyond the bounds of social construction 66

Sustainability indicators 68

Ecological modernization 70

Conclusions: modernity and sustainability 72

5 Towards Sustainable Subjectivity: A View from Feminist Philosophy / Rosi Braidotti 74

Towards an inclusive definition 74

Background: the WED debate 75

Postmodernity 80

Philosophical critiques of humanism 83

The social imaginary 86

Sustainable subjectivity 87

Memory 91

The imagination 92

6 From Experience to Theory: Traditions of Social-ecological Research in Modern India / Ramachandra Guha 96

The environment debate in contemporary India 97

Styles and trends in research 100

From experience to theory 103

The unfinished business of social ecology 107

7 The Socio-ecological Embeddedness of Economic Activity: The Emergence of a Transdisciplinary Field / Juan Martinez-Alier 122

Some ecological distribution conflicts 115

International externalities 119

Ecologically unequal exchange 121

Physical indicators and historical time 123

Environmental indicators 126

Some theories and methods in ecological economics: a tentative classification 132

'Orchestration of the sciences' 136

Part II Towards Defining, Measuring and Achieving Sustainability: Analytical Approaches of the Social Sciences 141

8 The Political Logic of Sustainability / Nazli Choucri 143

New thinking on sustainability 146

Political logic of sustainability 151

9 Economic Concepts of Sustainability: Relocating Economic Activity within Society and Environment / John Gowdy 162

Economic concepts of sustainability 163

Economics in context: hierarchies in human and natural systems 170

Hierarchies and the value of the environment: the example of biodiversity 172

Putting theory into practice: a framework for valuation 177

10 Sustainability from a Feminist Sociological Perspective: A Framework for Disciplinary Reorientation / Margrit Eichler 182

Existing definitions of sustainability 183

Three commonly held views 183

What contribution - if any - can sociology make to sustainability? 189

Equity and gender 192

What contribution - if any - can feminism make to sustainability? 197

Is there a definition of sustainability that is useful for sociology? 197

What organizational changes would be necessary to redirect sociology? 201

The potential conflict between a unifying framework and the conceptual and theoretical foundations of the social sciences 203

Prospects for the future 204

11 Territory, Scale and Sustainable Development / Carlos E. Reboratti 207

One term, many ambiguities 207

The analytical dimension 208

The normative dimension 210

From concepts to action: the political dimension 211

Scientific disciplines and transdisciplinary concepts 214

The society-nature relationship: a fresh perspective on sustainable development? 215

Society, environment and sustainability 217

Problems of territorial and temporal scales in the conceptualization of sustainable development 219

From a concept to an agreement 221

12 Psychological Perspectives on Sustainability / Carol M. Werner 223

Relevant topics in environmental psychology 223

Psychological research on sustainability 224

Holistic programmes 236

Community activism and empowerment 238

Spanning disciplinary boundaries 240

What can psychology learn? 242

13 Towards Defining, Measuring and Achieving Sustainability: Tools and Strategies for Environmental Valuation / Robert Paehlke 243

Defining sustainability 243

Measuring sustainability 250

Achieving sustainability 259

Part III Perspectives: Creating Networks for Sustainability 265

14 Dance with Wolves? Sustainability and the Social Sciences / Michael Redclift 267

Epistemologies and cultures 267

Sustainability and the refashioning of environmental problems 269

Incorporating 'users' into sustainability research 271

15 Innovations in Uses of Cyberspace / Nazli Choucri 274

Cybersystems and cyberspace 274

Global system for sustainable development (GSSD) 275

Social sciences and cyberspace 279

16 Fostering Transdisciplinary Research into Sustainability in an Age of Globalization: A Short Political Epilogue / Egon Becker 284.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 290-327) and index.

ISBN:

1856497089

1856497097

OCLC:

40954231