Egon Becker, Thomas Jahn (eds), Sustainability and the Social Sciences. A Cross-Disciplinary Approach to Integrating Environmental Considerations into Theoretical Reorientation.
Zed Books 1999. ISBN 1856497097 pb, Euro 26,50

This multi-authored volume which emerged from a research project on sustainability and the social sciences within the UNESCO-MOST Programme explores 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. Taking this approach, they follow through on a number of purposes: 

• 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. This will come from their willingness to look at the complex interactions of society and nature, and the connections between symbolic and material dimensions of social practices.

Following this path, this volume introduces into the discussion on sustainability within various social science disciplines. It demonstrates how this intellectual reorientation of the social sciences opens up fresh perspectives for environmental research and the development of forward-looking and actor-oriented sustainability strategies.

The book is divided into three sections. The contributions in Part I, "Sustainability - Its Cognitive Power for Emerging Fields of Knowledge", explore on a more general level the implications of sustainability, which has primarily been developed as a political model, for the social sciences. Outlining the scope and the new type of problems that are associated with sustainability, they intend to identify links and critical sites within the social sciences from which further conceptualization of sustainability might depart.

The contributions in Part II, "Towards Defining, Measuring and Achieving Sustainability - Analytical Approaches of the Social Sciences", review the state of discussion within individual social science disciplines and examine more closely selected approaches and instruments. Thus, they provide insights into the <cutting-edge> of sustainability-related research. At the same time, they also point to obstacles that have prevented the concern with sustainability to attract broader attention within social sciences.

The contributions in Part III, "Perspectives - Creating Networks for Sustainability", widen the focus from conceptual and methodological considerations to the discussion of the role of the social sciences within a broader context. This section includes contributions that address issues of science and research policy, the relation between scientists and non-scientific users of research and the changing political context in which sustainability research is situated.

Content:

1.  Exploring Uncommon Ground: Sustainability as a Concept for the Social Sciences Thomas Jahn and Immanuel StieSocial Sustainability and Whole Development: Exploring the Dimensions of Sustainable Development  <>(Egon Becker, Thomas Jahn and Immanuel Stieß) Download 130kb pdf-file

PART ONE: Sustainability - Its Cognitive Power for Emerging Fields of Knowledge

2. Social Sustainability and Whole Development: Exploring the Dimensions of Sustainable Development (Ignacy Sachs)

3. Sustainability and Territory: Meaningful Practices and Material Transformations (Henri Acselrad)

4. Sustainability and Sociology: Northern Preoccupations (Michael Redclift)

5. Towards Sustainable Subjectivity: A View from Feminist Philosophy (Rosi Braidotti)

6. From Experience to Theory: Traditions of Social-Ecological Research in Modern India (Ramachandra Guha)

7. The Socio-Ecological Embeddedness of Economic Activity: The Emergence of a Transdisciplinary Field (Juan Martinez-Alier)

PART TWO: Towards Defining, Measuring and Achieving Sustainability - Analytical Approaches of the Social Sciences

8. The Political Logic of Sustainability (Nazli Choucri)

9. Economic Concepts of Sustainability: Relocating Economic Activity within Society and Environment (John M. Gowdy)

10. Considering Sustainability from a Sociological Feminist Perspective: A Framework for Disciplinary Reorientation (Margrit Eichler)

11. Territory, Scale and Sustainable Development (Carlos E. Reboratti)

12. Psychological Perspectives on Sustainability (Carol Werner)

13. Towards Defining, Measuring, and Achieving Sustainability: Tools and Strategies for Environmental Valuation (Robert C. Paehlke)

PART THREE: Perspectives - Creating Networks for Sustainability

14. Dance with Wolves? Sustainability and the Social Sciences (Michael Redclift)

15. Innovations in Uses Cyberspace (Nazli Choucri)

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