Sustainability and the Social Sciences A Cross-Disciplinary Approach to Integrating Environmental Considerations into Thoeretical Reorientation

by Becker, Egon; Jahn, Thomas

• ISBN13: 9781856497091
• ISBN10: 1856497097
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-02-12
• Publisher: ZED BOOKS

Summary

The eminent contributors to this volume explore the complex terrain of the interface between the social sciences and environmental research. Coming from a range of social science disciplines, they argue that environmental questions will increasingly dominate humanity in the course of the coming century. This reality holds out an opportunity, and indeed practical necessity, of stimulating important new lines of theoretical development within the social sciences as well as new forms of intellectual cooperation across them.

Author Biography

Egon Becker is Professor for Theory of Science and Sociology of Higher Education at the University of Frankfurt.

Thomas Jahn is Executive Director of the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE), Frankfurt.

Table of Contents

Tables and Figures	ix
Foreword	x
Federico Mayor
Preface	xii
Contributors	xiv
Exploring Uncommon Ground: Sustainability and the Social Sciences	1	(22)
Egon Becker
Thomas Jahn
Immanuel Stiess
Social sciences and the debate on sustainable development	1	(3)
Analytical, normative and political implications of sustainability	4	(2)
Towards a working definition of sustainability	6	(2)
A social trajectories view for discourse-oriented policies	8	(2)
Reorienting the social sciences	10	(2)
Making the research process more inclusive	12	(11)
PART I Sustainability: Its Cognitive Power for Emerging Fields of Knowledge	23	(118)
Social Sustainability and Whole Development: Exploring the Dimensions of Sustainable Development	25	(12)
Ignacy Sachs
From economic growth to `whole' development	28	(2)
The controversy over growth	30	(1)
Partial sustainabilities and whole sustainability	31	(6)
Sustainability and Territory: Meaningful Practices and Material Transformations	37	(22)
Henri Acselrad
Environment and territory in the social sciences	39	(5)
Sustainability and socio-political contexts: actors and projects in the hegemonic struggle	44	(5)
Sustainability as an object of symbolical struggle	49	(6)
Final considerations	55	(4)
Sustainability and Sociology: Northern Preoccupations	59	(15)
Michael Redclift
Sustainable development	59	(5)
The limitations of social constructionism	64	(2)
Beyond the bounds of social construction	66	(2)
Sustainability indicators	68	(2)
Ecological modernization	70	(2)
Conclusions: modernity and sustainability	72	(2)
Towards Sustainable Subjectivity: A View from Feminist Philosophy	74	(22)
Rosi Braidotti
Towards an inclusive definition	74	(1)
Background: the WED debate	75	(5)
Postmodernity	80	(3)
Philosophical critiques of humanism	83	(3)
The social imaginary	86	(1)
Sustainable subjectivity	87	(4)
Memory	91	(1)
The imagination	92	(1)
Conclusion	93	(3)
From Experience to Theory: Traditions of Social-ecological Research in Modern India	96	(16)
Ramachandra Guha
The environment debate in contemporary India	97	(3)
Styles and trends in research	100	(3)
From experience to theory	103	(4)
The unfinished business of social ecology	107	(5)
The Socio-ecological Embeddedness of Economic Activity: The Emergence of a Transdisciplinary Field	112	(29)
Juan Martinez-Alier
Some ecological distribution conflicts	115	(4)
International externalities	119	(2)
Ecologically unequal exchange	121	(2)
Physical indicators and historical time	123	(3)
Environmental indicators	126	(6)
Some theories and methods in ecological economics: a tentative classification	132	(4)
`Orchestration of the sciences'	136	(5)
PART II Towards Defining, Measuring and Achieving Sustainability: Analytical Approaches of the Social Sciences	141	(124)
The Political Logic of Sustainability	143	(19)
Nazli Choucri
Introduction	143	(3)
New thinking on sustainability	146	(5)
Political logic of sustainability	151	(11)
Economic Concepts of Sustainability: Relocating Economic Activity within Society and Environment	162	(20)
John Gowdy
Economic concepts of sustainability	163	(7)
Economics in context: hierarchies in human and natural systems	170	(2)
Hierarchies and the value of the environment: the example of biodiversity	172	(5)
Putting theory into practice: a framework for valuation	177	(5)
Sustainability from a Feminist Sociological Perspective: A Framework for Disciplinary Reorientation	182	(25)
Margrit Eichler
Existing definitions of sustainability	183	(1)
Three commonly held views	183	(6)
What contribution -- if any -- can sociology make to sustainability?	189	(3)
Equity and gender	192	(5)
What contribution -- if any -- can feminism make to sustainability?	197	(1)
Is there a definition of sustainability that is useful for sociology?	197	(4)
What organizational changes would be necessary to redirect sociology?	201	(2)
The potential conflict between a unifying framework and the conceptual and theoretical foundations of the social sciences	203	(1)
Prospects for the future	204	(3)
Territory, Scale and Sustainable Development	207	(16)
Carlos E. Reboratti
One term, many ambiguities	207	(1)
The analytical dimension	208	(2)
The normative dimension	210	(1)
From concepts to action: the political dimension	211	(3)
Scientific disciplines and transdisciplinary concepts	214	(1)
The society--nature relationship: a fresh perspective on sustainable development?	215	(2)
Society, environment and sustainability	217	(2)
Problems of territorial and temporal scales in the conceptualization of sustainable development	219	(2)
From a concept to an agreement	221	(2)
Psychological Perspectives on Sustainability	223	(20)
Carol M. Werner
Relevant topics in environmental psychology	223	(1)
Psychological research on sustainability	224	(12)
Holistic programmes	236	(2)
Community activism and empowerment	238	(2)
Spanning disciplinary boundaries	240	(2)
What can psychology learn?	242	(1)
Conclusion	242	(1)
Towards Defining, Measuring and Achieving Sustainability: Tools and Strategies for Environmental Valuation	243	(22)
Robert Paehlke
Defining sustainability	243	(7)
Measuring sustainability	250	(9)
Achieving sustainability	259	(6)
PART III Perspectives: Creating Networks for Sustainability	265	(25)
Dance with Wolves? Sustainability and the Social Sciences	267	(7)
Michael Redclift
Epistemologies and cultures	267	(2)
Sustainability and the refashioning of environmental problems	269	(2)
Incorporating `users' into sustainability research	271	(2)
Conclusion	273	(1)
Innovations in Uses of Cyberspace	274	(10)
Nazli Choucri
Cybersystems and cyberspace	274	(1)
Global system for sustainable development (GSSD)	275	(4)
Social sciences and cyberspace	279	(5)
Fostering Transdisciplinary Research into Sustainability in an Age of Globalization: A Short Political Epilogue	284	(6)
Egon Becker
Bibliography	290	(38)
Index	328