Abstract
Sociological insights are often underutilized in sustainability science. To further strengthen its commitment to interdisciplinary problem-driven, solutions-oriented research, sustainability science can better incorporate fundamental sociological conceptions into its core. We highlight four aspects of sociological thought that we consider crucial for advancing sustainability science research: (1) social construction and critical realism, (2) structure and agency, (3) historical specificity, and (4) collective action. We draw on examples from sociology to support a dynamic understanding of how social relations interact with the bio-geo-physical world. This necessary integration of sociological insights, we argue, is critical to generate comprehensive assessments of the causes and consequences of human-induced environmental change, and tend to be overlooked or oversimplified within the field of sustainability science. Beyond that, it can stimulate the development and implementation of viable solutions to sustainability challenges.
Highlights
Sustainability science emerged as a response to the numerous sustainability challenges that people and societies face
While sociology is applied in sustainability science to some degree, we propose that a more consistent integration and systematic uptake would enrich the field in substantial ways
We suggest four particular aspects where sociology provides insights that are indispensable for analyzing the causes and consequences of unsustainability and for developing viable solutions: (1) social construction and critical realism; (2) structure and agency dynamics; (3) historical specificity; and (4) the necessity of collective action for problem-solving
Summary
Sustainability science emerged as a response to the numerous sustainability challenges that people and societies face. Sustainability challenges are essentially sociological in their origin in that they arise out of social structures, drivers, and dynamics, and call for changes in human behavior and social processes Environmental problems, such as pollution of air, soils, and water, are undesirable, so why do they persist? Given that it is seriously committed to critical interdisciplinary problem-solving, sustainability science must incorporate into its core the fundamental insights from the various disciplines it deems genuinely relevant. This clearly includes sociology because most solutions are social [6]. A deeper, more consistent, and combined assimilation of these key sociological insights can improve understanding of and promote action on these increasingly weighty matters
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