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

Contributor(s): Becker, Egon | Jahn, Thomas, 1952-.

Material type: materialTypeLabel

BookPublisher: Paris ; Frankfurt ; London : UNESCO : ISOE : Zed Books, 1999Description: xvi, 336 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. + pbk.ISBN: 1856497089 (hbk); 1856497097 (pbk).Subject(s): Sustainable development

| Social sciences

DDC classification: 306.3

Contents:

Part I: Sustainability: Its cognitive power for emerging fields of knowledge -- Part II: Towards defining, measuring and achieving sustainability: analytical approaches of the social sciences -- Part III: Perspectives: Creating networks for sustainability.

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
General Lending	MTU Bishopstown Library Lending	306.3 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available		00085769

Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The eminent contributors to this volume explores 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.

Taking sustainability as the potential common term of reference which can help generate problems to which responses must be found, this volume seeks:

* To clarify the meaning and analytical implications of sustainability from a social sciences perspective in order to establish starting points for new research;

* To explore the potential contributions of different social science disciplines to the sustainability debate;

* And more ambitiously, to suggest ways in which the conceptual implications of sustainability can promote a reorientation of the social sciences themselves.

Published in association with UNESCO and ISOE.

Bibliography: (pages 290-327) and index.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

Tables and Figures (p. ix)
Foreword (p. x)
Preface (p. xii)
Contributors (p. xiv)
1 Exploring Uncommon Ground: Sustainability and the Social Sciences (p. 1)
Social sciences and the debate on sustainable development (p. 1)
Analytical, normative and political implications of sustainability (p. 4)
Towards a working definition of sustainability (p. 6)
A social trajectories view for discourse-oriented policies (p. 8)
Reorienting the social sciences (p. 10)
Making the research process more inclusive (p. 12)
Part I Sustainability: Its Cognitive Power for Emerging Fields of Knowledge (p. 23)
2 Social Sustainability and Whole Development: Exploring the Dimensions of Sustainable Development (p. 25)
From economic growth to 'whole' development (p. 28)
The controversy over growth (p. 30)
Partial sustainabilities and whole sustainability (p. 31)
3 Sustainability and Territory: Meaningful Practices and Material Transformations (p. 37)
Environment and territory in the social sciences (p. 39)
Sustainability and socio-political contexts: actors and projects in the hegemonic struggle (p. 44)
Sustainability as an object of symbolical struggle (p. 49)
Final considerations (p. 55)
4 Sustainability and Sociology: Northern Preoccupations (p. 59)
Sustainable development (p. 59)
The limitations of social constructionism (p. 64)
Beyond the bounds of social construction (p. 66)
Sustainability indicators (p. 68)
Ecological modernization (p. 70)
Conclusions: modernity and sustainability (p. 72)
5 Towards Sustainable Subjectivity: A View from Feminist Philosophy (p. 74)
Towards an inclusive definition (p. 74)
Background: the WED debate (p. 75)
Postmodernity (p. 80)
Philosophical critiques of humanism (p. 83)
The social imaginary (p. 86)
Sustainable subjectivity (p. 87)
Memory (p. 91)
The imagination (p. 92)
Conclusion (p. 93)
6 From Experience to Theory: Traditions of Social-ecological Research in Modern India (p. 96)
The environment debate in contemporary India (p. 97)
Styles and trends in research (p. 100)
From experience to theory (p. 103)
The unfinished business of social ecology (p. 107)
7 The Socio-ecological Embeddedness of Economic Activity: The Emergence of a Transdisciplinary Field (p. 122)
Some ecological distribution conflicts (p. 115)
International externalities (p. 119)
Ecologically unequal exchange (p. 121)
Physical indicators and historical time (p. 123)
Environmental indicators (p. 126)
Some theories and methods in ecological economics: a tentative classification (p. 132)
'Orchestration of the sciences' (p. 136)
Part II Towards Defining, Measuring and Achieving Sustainability: Analytical Approaches of the Social Sciences (p. 141)
8 The Political Logic of Sustainability (p. 143)
Introduction (p. 143)
New thinking on sustainability (p. 146)
Political logic of sustainability (p. 151)
9 Economic Concepts of Sustainability: Relocating Economic Activity within Society and Environment (p. 162)
Economic concepts of sustainability (p. 163)
Economics in context: hierarchies in human and natural systems (p. 170)
Hierarchies and the value of the environment: the example of biodiversity (p. 172)
Putting theory into practice: a framework for valuation (p. 177)
10 Sustainability from a Feminist Sociological Perspective: A Framework for Disciplinary Reorientation (p. 182)
Existing definitions of sustainability (p. 183)
Three commonly held views (p. 183)
What contribution - if any - can sociology make to sustainability? (p. 189)
Equity and gender (p. 192)
What contribution - if any - can feminism make to sustainability? (p. 197)
Is there a definition of sustainability that is useful for sociology? (p. 197)
What organizational changes would be necessary to redirect sociology? (p. 201)
The potential conflict between a unifying framework and the conceptual and theoretical foundations of the social sciences (p. 203)
Prospects for the future (p. 204)
11 Territory, Scale and Sustainable Development (p. 207)
One term, many ambiguities (p. 207)
The analytical dimension (p. 208)
The normative dimension (p. 210)
From concepts to action: the political dimension (p. 211)
Scientific disciplines and transdisciplinary concepts (p. 214)
The society-nature relationship: a fresh perspective on sustainable development? (p. 215)
Society, environment and sustainability (p. 217)
Problems of territorial and temporal scales in the conceptualization of sustainable development (p. 219)
From a concept to an agreement (p. 221)
12 Psychological Perspectives on Sustainability (p. 223)
Relevant topics in environmental psychology (p. 223)
Psychological research on sustainability (p. 224)
Holistic programmes (p. 236)
Community activism and empowerment (p. 238)
Spanning disciplinary boundaries (p. 240)
What can psychology learn? (p. 242)
Conclusion (p. 242)
13 Towards Defining, Measuring and Achieving Sustainability: Tools and Strategies for Environmental Valuation (p. 243)
Defining sustainability (p. 243)
Measuring sustainability (p. 250)
Achieving sustainability (p. 259)
Part III Perspectives: Creating Networks for Sustainability (p. 265)
14 Dance with Wolves? Sustainability and the Social Sciences (p. 267)
Epistemologies and cultures (p. 267)
Sustainability and the refashioning of environmental problems (p. 269)
Incorporating 'users' into sustainability research (p. 271)
Conclusion (p. 273)
15 Innovations in Uses of Cyberspace (p. 274)
Cybersystems and cyberspace (p. 274)
Global system for sustainable development (GSSD) (p. 275)
Social sciences and cyberspace (p. 279)
16 Fostering Transdisciplinary Research into Sustainability in an Age of Globalization: A Short Political Epilogue (p. 284)
Bibliography (p. 290)
Index (p. 328)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

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.
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.