Building a 'theory of sustainable development': two salient conceptions within the German discourse

Schultz, Julia A.; Brand, Fridolin S.; Kopfmüller, Jürgen; Ott, Konrad

doi:10.1504/ijesd.2008.022390

Cited by 48 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…On the one hand, a plurality of sometimes strongly differing and even competing meanings has been ascribed to this term (Lafferty and Langhelle 1999;Lélé 1991;Redclift 1992;Schultz et al 2008;Sneddon et al 2006). On the other hand, sustainable development is a term that has been defined only vaguely (e.g., Fergus and Rowney 2005;Kates et al 2005;Robinson 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards adequately framing sustainability goals in research projects: the case of land use studies

Wuelser

2013

Sustain Sci

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Sustainability-oriented undertakings employ a multitude of different definitions and understandings of the term sustainable development. Against this background, the question of which sustainability goals to refer to at project level must be posed. This article discusses this question using the example of research on land use issues. It presents a qualitative in-depth empirical analysis of the underlying sustainability understanding of research projects, and identifies crucial characteristics of the ways researchers deal with the respective normative goals. The notions of sustainable development advanced by such projects featured different foci with respect to the overall meaning of the concept and were influenced by diverse actor and stakeholder perspectives. Further, the identified sustainability conceptions were deliberated on to different extents, and also differed with respect to whether they were explicit or contextualized. Most importantly, the projects differed in how they broached the issue of sustainability goals as part of research. The findings were used to develop a set of guidelines that clarifies how research can be related successfully to the societal vision of sustainable development. The guidelines draw conceptually on general requirements for appropriate sustainability conceptions derived from the Brundtland definition. They offer a tool for reflecting on one's assumptions with respect to sustainability goals at any stage of research, which is crucial for advancing the seminal field of sustainability science.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards adequately framing sustainability goals in research projects: the case of land use studies

Wuelser

2013

Sustain Sci

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“…For almost 30 years, several approaches to conceptualizing sustainable development have been developed and applied, such as the three-or four-pillar model or the cross-pillar integrative approaches [14,15]. The threepillar model prevails in political and scientific practice, despite being criticized for its lack of theoretical depth in justifying sustainable development as overall guiding principle, its systematic neglect of interdependencies between the pillars and insufficient consideration of the postulate of justice and fairness [14,15].…”

Section: The Integrative Concept Of Sustainable Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The threepillar model prevails in political and scientific practice, despite being criticized for its lack of theoretical depth in justifying sustainable development as overall guiding principle, its systematic neglect of interdependencies between the pillars and insufficient consideration of the postulate of justice and fairness [14,15]. The Integrative Concept of Sustainable Development [13] was developed to overcome these deficits.…”

Section: The Integrative Concept Of Sustainable Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…relevant considerations, are possible and even necessary at the level of specific thematic, regional or other contexts. With this sophisticated architecture and the elements outlined above, the Integrative Concept of Sustainable Development is a multi-level concept, theoretically well-founded, clearly defined and non-arbitrary, that provides a good fundament for setting up something that could be called a theory of sustainable development [14].…”

Section: The Integrative Concept Of Sustainable Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Indicator system for the sustainability assessment of the German energy system and its transition

et al. 2017

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In response to climate change, the limited availability of fossil fuels and the risks associated with nuclear energy, Germany's energy transition aims to achieve a sustainable, environmentally sound supply of energy services. A monitoring process was established by the Federal Government to ensure that the targets defined for the transformation will be reached. The indicator system developed for that purpose mainly focuses on "classical" environmental, economic and technological indicators for which statistical time series data and political targets are available. Important socio-technical aspects of the energy system and its transition, such as affordability, participation and acceptance, remain largely neglected. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion on indicators needed for political decision-making to appropriately address sustainability aspects of the energy system and its transition, as well as to contribute to improving existing indicator systems. Therefore, the sustainability rules of the Integrative Concept of Sustainable Development were translated into indicators based on an in-depth literature review. The resulting abundance of possible indicators was then reduced using selection criteria such as comprehensiveness, possibility to determine targets and availability of data. Finally, the indicator system was adjusted based on feedback of experts from different disciplines and stakeholder interviews in the particular investigation area of southwest Thuringia. Besides classical indicators related to techno-economic and environmental aspects, the finally developed indicator system includes new sustainability indicators related to the socio-technical interface of the energy system. Thus, it is considered suitable for assessing the sustainability of the Germany energy system and its transition in an integrative and comprehensive way. The indicator system is helpful to systematically identify strengths and weaknesses of the energy system and interdependencies and conflicts of goals between different sustainability aspects. All in all, we believe that applying the indicator system appropriately can support the development of resilient political strategies for a successful energy transition.

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“…Contrary to most sustainability concepts, the basic idea here is to avoid defining sustainable development along 'classic' economic, ecological, and social lines. Instead, the IHSC begins with the constitutive elements of the sustainability overall concept, derived from key documents such as the Brundtland Report, the Rio Declaration, and Agenda 21: (a) the postulate of inter-and intragenerational justice, (b) the global perspective, and (c) the anthropocentric view [19][20][21][22], that are translated into three general goals: to secure human existence, maintain society's productive potential, and preserve society's options for development and action. These goals are further concretized by a set of sustainability rules, such as the satisfaction of basic needs, equal access to education and information, the ability to provide for oneself, the sustainable use of renewable and nonrenewable resources, an adequate development of human and knowledge capital, maintenance of social resources, or the preservation of cultural heritage and cultural diversity.…”

Section: Sustainability Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The potential of a sustainable municipal waste management system for Santiago de Chile, including energy production from waste

2012

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Background: Due to a rapid urbanization process in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile (MRS), the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) generated has increased considerably within the last years. MSW should be managed properly in order to achieve sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to analyze MSW management in MRS on the basis of three different explorative scenarios for the year 2030.

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Building a 'theory of sustainable development': two salient conceptions within the German discourse

Cited by 48 publications

References 16 publications

Towards adequately framing sustainability goals in research projects: the case of land use studies

Towards adequately framing sustainability goals in research projects: the case of land use studies

Indicator system for the sustainability assessment of the German energy system and its transition

The potential of a sustainable municipal waste management system for Santiago de Chile, including energy production from waste

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