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While sustainability has become a buzzword in discussions about the environment and development, work on theories of sustainable development has received much less attention. However, theory is vital as understanding the origins and development of the concept is the key to achieving successful implementation of sustainability.
This book offers an interdisciplinary collection of research articles on the theories of sustainable development, drawing on a wide range of subjects including history, politics, governance, complex systems, economics and philosophy. It advocates viewing sustainable development not only as the establishment of a permanent, globally practicable and future-capable mode of life and economics, but as a complex array of problems involving a wide range of social-scientific and humanistic disciplines. This innovative approach means that the book is oriented toward current problems, not toward the established academic boundaries, and it draws out lessons that are relevant for those studying and working in sustainability across the world.
This book will be of great interest to researchers and students of sustainable development and environmental politics, as well as practitioners working with sustainable development in politics, business, administration, and civil society organizations.
List of contents
Foreword 1. Theories of Sustainable Development – an Introduction 2. The Discovery of Sustainability: The Genealogy of a Term 3. What Kind of Theory Do We Need for Sustainable of Development – And how Much of It? Some Thoughts 4. Theory of Sustainability? Considerations on a Basic Understanding of "Sustainability Science" 5. The Quality of Sustainability Science: a Philosophical Perspective 6. Transdisciplinary Humanistic Sustainability Theory: Justice, Governance, Blocks 7. Theories of "Sustainability" and the Sustainability of Theories: For Alternatives to the Mainstream, and against Simple Solutions 8. Sustainability and the Challenge of Complex Systems 9. Sustainable Development: A Global Model – Universal and Contextual 10. The Non-Identity Problem: An Irrefutable Argument against Representation fo Future Generations? 11. The Definition of Society’s Relationship with Nature on the Basis of Reproduction Theory – A Historical-Systematic Problem Sketch 12. The Missing Aspect of Culture in Sustainability Concepts 13. Ten Theses on a Research Agenda for Sustainable Development
About the author
Judith C. Enders is a member of the study group "Global Issues" of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). She was Senior Researcher at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, Germany, and is now conducting freelance social research.
Moritz Remig is a Researcher at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, Germany, and a PhD candidate at the University of Kassel, Germany.
