Abstract
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.
Highlights
Since the Rio Summit in 1992, governments across the globe have decided to strive for sustainable development as originally outlined by the Brundtland Commission (WCED 1987)
Investigating how the research projects were orientated at sustainability goals yielded on the one hand insights into the content of advanced sustainability visions, and on the other a number of attributes that characterize how the researchers dealt with the challenge of referring their work to a societal concern
The identified sustainability conceptions are discussed with respect to the overall objectives of sustainable development, as well as with respect to the actor perspectives they took up
Summary
Since the Rio Summit in 1992, governments across the globe have decided to strive for sustainable development as originally outlined by the Brundtland Commission (WCED 1987). Related to these political commitments, a multitude of sustainability-oriented projects, policies, programs and the like have been developed and implemented. Such undertakings are, by declaration, concerned with changing less sustainable ways of meeting needs to something more sustainable—which requires being able to tell good and bad practices apart. Conceptions of sustainability can diverge considerably, whether they are based on the same or different underlying principles (Jacobs 1999). While being of general importance, the issue of sustainability conceptions that underlie concrete projects is explored here using the example of scientific research
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
