Economistic discourses of sustainability: determining moments and the question of alternatives

Los momentos determinantes y la pregunta por alternativas en diferentes comunidades lingüísticas

Authors

  • Esther Meyer Faculty of Sustainability, Lüneburg, Germany
  • Ulli Vilsmaier Leuphana University Lueneburg, Methodology Center

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18472/SustDeb.v11n1.2020.26663

Keywords:

Sustainability sciences. Transdisciplinary. Discourse analysis. Hegemonic discourses. Intercultural.

Abstract

The dissemination of sustainability has worldwide increased significantly in discourses and politics since the UN-resolution of the ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ in 2015. Nevertheless, the meanings of the concept vary in different linguistic communities and cultures. The present article comprises a meta-analytic revision of discourse-analytic work and a own discourse analysis of sustainability concepts in an intercultural orientation. The results show hegemonic discourses of economistic conceptualizations as well as alternatives, which are constituted in different linguistic communities. The article wants to contribute to an exchange and a profound discussion between the linguistic groups as well as to a methodological reflection on discourse analysis from an intercultural perspective.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Esther Meyer, Faculty of Sustainability, Lüneburg, Germany

Faculty of Sustainability, Lüneburg, Germany

Ulli Vilsmaier, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Methodology Center

Since 10/2017: Administration of the Chair of Transdisciplinary Methods, Leuphana University Lüneburg  

References

ACOSTA, A.; BRAND, U. Radikale Alternativen. Warum man den Kapitalismus nur mit vereinten Kräften überwinden kann. Munich: oekom, 2018.

ALBÁN, A.; ROSERO, J. Coloniality of the natural world: imposition of technology and epistemic usurpation? Interculturality, development and re-existence. Nómadas, 45, 2016.

ALEXANDER, R.; STIBBE, A. From the analysis of ecological discourse to the ecological analysis of discourse. Language Sciences, 41, pp. 104”“110, 2014. DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2013.08.011.

AYESTARAN, I. Science, Responsibility and Global Sustainability: Steps Towards a New Ethical Paradigm? In: PARODI, O.; AYESTARAN, I.; BANSE, G. (Org.). Sustainable Development - Relationships to Culture, Knowledge and Ethics. Karlsruhe: KIT Scientific Publishing, 2011.

BHABHA, Homi. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 2004.

BÜHRMANN, A.; SCHNEIDER, W. Vom Diskurs zum Dispositiv: Eine Einführung in die Dispositivanalyse. Bielefeld: transcript, 2008.

CLARKE, Adele. Situationsanalyse: Grounded Theory nach dem Postmodern Turn. Heidelberg: Springer, 2012.

DE SOUSA SANTOS, Boaventura. A Discourse on the Sciences. Review, XV (1), pp. 9”“47, 1992.

DINGLER, Joachim. Postmoderne und Nachhaltigkeit: Eine diskurstheoretische Analyse der sozialen Konstruktionen von nachhaltiger Entwicklung. Munich: oekom, 2003.

EBLINGHAUS, H.; STICKLER, A. Nachhaltigkeit und Macht: Zur Kritik von Sustainable Development. Frankfurt: IKO ”“ Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation, 1996.

ENGBERS, Moritz. Kultur und Differenz: Transdisziplinäre Nachhaltigkeitsforschung gestalten. Wahrnehmungsgeographische Studien 29. Oldenburg: BIS-Verlag der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, 2020.

ESCOBAR, Arturo. Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.

GIBBONS, M.; LIMOGES, C.; NOWOTNY, H.; SCHWARTZMANN, S.; SCOTT, H.; TROY, M. The New Production of Knowledge: the Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies. London: Sage, 1994.

GIBBONS, Michael. Science’s new social contract with society. Nature, 402, pp. C81”“C84, 1999.

GRUNWALD, Armin. Conflict-resolution in the Context of Sustainable Development: Naturalistic Versus Culturalistic Approaches. Karlsruhe: KIT Scientific Publishing, 2011.

HAJER, Maarten. The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernization and the Policy Process. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

HARAWAY Donna. Situated Knowledges. Feminist Studies, 14 (3), pp. 575”“599, 1988.

HAUFF, Volker. Unsere gemeinsame Zukunft: Der Brundtland-Bericht der Weltkommission für Umwelt und Entwicklung. Greven: Eggenkamp, 1987.

HÖHLER, S.; LUKS, F. Die ökonomische Konstruktion ökologischer Wirklichkeit. Working NEDS Papers, NEDS (5), 2004.

HUNECKE, Marcel. Eine forschungsmethodologische Heuristik zur Sozialen Ökologie. München: oekom, 2006.

KAGAN, Sacha. Auf dem Weg zu einem globalen (Umwelt-) Bewusstseinswandel: Über transformative Kunst und eine geistige Kultur der Nachhaltigkeit. Berlin: Heinrich Böll Stiftung, 2012.

KAMBITES, Carol. ‘Sustainable Development’: the ‘Unsustainable’ Development of a Concept in Political Discourse, Sustainable Development, 22 (5), pp. 336”“348, 2014. DOI: 10.1002/sd.1552.

KLEIN, Julie Thompson. Discourses of transdisciplinarity: Looking Back to the Future. Futures, 63, pp. 68”“74, 2014. DOI: 10.1016/j.futures.2014.08.008.

KLIPPEL, D.; OTTO, M. Nachhaltigkeit und Begriffsgeschichte. In: KAHL, W. (Org.). Nachhaltigkeit als Verbundbegriff. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008. pp. 39”“59.

MEADOWS, D.; MEADOWS, D.; RANDERS, J.; BEHERNS, W. The Limits to Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind. New York: Universe, 1972.

MEYER, Esther. Der wissenschaftliche Diskurs zu Sozialer Nachhaltigkeit. There are Alternatives: Zum Wandel von Wirtschaftsweise & Lebensstil, tesis de máster en ciencias de la sustentabilidad, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, 2014.

MEYER, Esther. Venidero. The problematic of transdisciplinary sustainability sciences. In: HÖRL, E.; LEISTERT, O. (Org.). Thinking the Problematic: Genealogies, Tracings, and Currents of a Persistent Force. Bielefeld: transcript, 2020 (venidero).

MICHELSEN, G.; ADOMßENT, M. Nachhaltige Entwicklung: Hintergründe und Zusammenhänge. In: HEINRICHS, H.; MICHELSEN, G. (Org.). Nachhaltigkeitswissenschaften. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer Spektrum, 2014. pp. 3”“60.

NOWOTNY, Helga. Sozial robustes Wissen und nachhaltige Entwicklung. GAIA, 9 (2), pp. 93”“100, 2000. DOI: 10.14512/gaia.9.1.1.

OTT, K.; DÖRING, R. Theorie und Praxis starker Nachhaltigkeit. Marburg: metrópolis, 2004.

PROCLIM. Vision der Forschenden. Forschung zu Nachhaltigkeit und Globalem Wandel ”“ Wissenschaftspolitische Visionen der Schweizer Forschenden, 1997.

QIN, Dongxiao. Positionality. In: The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2016. DOI: 10.1002/9781118663219.wbegss619.

ROSE, J.; CACHELIN, A. Critical sustainability: incorporating critical theories into contested sustainabilities. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 8 (4), pp. 518”“525. 2018.

SANTIAGO, M.E. Sustentabilidad a dos tiempos. Polis, 8 (24), 2009.

SCHACHTSCHNEIDER, Ulrich. Soziale Nachhaltigkeit als konkrete Utopie? UTOPIE kreativ, 196, pp. 132”“146, 2007.

SCHULTZ, J.; BRAND, F.; KOPFMÜLLER, J.; OTT, K. Building a ‘theory of sustainable development’: two salient conceptions within the German discourse. International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 7 (4), pp. 465”“482, 2008. DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2008.022390.

SPANGENBERG, Hans-Joachim. Sustainability science: a review, an analysis and some empirical lessons. Environmental Conservation, 38 (3), pp. 275”“287, 2011. DOI: 10.1017/S0376892911000270.

STEURER, Reinhard. Der Wachstumsdiskurs in Wissenschaft und Politik. Berlin: Verlag für Wissenschaft und Forschung, 2002.

STIEFERLE, Rolf. Nachhaltigkeit aus umwelthistorischer Perspektive. In: BURGER, P.; KAUFMANN-HAYOZ, R. (Org.). Nachhaltigkeitsforschung ”“ Perspektiven der Sozial- und Geisteswissenschaften. Bern: Schweizerische Akademie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften. 2007. pp. 79”“98.

SZE, J.; RADEMACHER, A.; BEAMISH, T.; GRANDIA, L.; LONDON, J.; WARREN, L.; MIDDLETON, B.R.; ZISER, M. Introduction. In: SZE, J. Sustainability: Approaches to Environmental Justice and Social Power. New York University Press: New York, 2018. pp. 1”“28.

TREMMEL, Jörg. Nachhaltigkeit als politische und analytische Kategorie: Der deutsche Diskurs um nachhaltige Entwicklung im Spiegel der Interessen der Akteure. München: oekom, 2003.

VANHULST, J.; HEVIA, A. Los Senderos Bifurcados del Desarrollo Sostenible: Un Analísis del Discurso Académico en América Latina. In: FLORIANI, D.; HELVIA, A. (Org.). América Latina. Sociedade e Meio Ambiente: Teorias, Retóricas e Conflitos em Desemvolvimento. Ed. UFPR, 2016.

VANHULST, J.; ZACCAI, E. Sustainability in Latin America: An analysis of the academic discursive field. Environmental Development, 20, pp. 68”“82, 2016. DOI: 10.1016/j.envdev.2016.10.005.

VILSMAIER, U.; LANG, D. Transdisziplinäre Forschung. In: HEINRICHS, H.; MICHELSEN, G. (Org.). Nachhaltigkeitswissenschaften. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer Spektrum, 2014. pp. 87”“114.

VILSMAIER, U.; ENGBERS, M.; LUTHARDT, P.; MAAS-DEIPENBROCK, R.-M.; WUNDERLICH, S.; SCHOLZ, RW. Case-based Mutual Learning Sessions: Knowledge integration and transfer in transdisciplinary processes. Sustainability Science, 10, pp. 563”“580, 2015. DOI: 10.1007/s11625-015-0335-3.

VILSMAIER, U.; BRANDNER, V.; ENGBERS, M. Research in-between: The Constitutive Role of Cultural Differences in Transdisciplinarity. Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering & Science, 8, p. 169-179, 2017. DOI: 10.22545/2017/00093.

WBGU. Welt im Wandel. Gesellschaftsvertrag für eine Große Transformation. Zusammenfassung für Entscheidungsträger, Berlin, 2011.

WCED. Our Common Future. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development. United Nations, 1987.

ZIEGLER, R.; OTT, K. The quality of sustainability science: A philosophical perspective. In: ENDERS, J.; REMIG, M. (Org.). Theories of Sustainable Development. London/New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group (Routledge Studies in Sustainable Development), 2011. pp. 43”“64.

Published

2020-04-30

How to Cite

Meyer, E., & Vilsmaier, U. (2020). Economistic discourses of sustainability: determining moments and the question of alternatives : Los momentos determinantes y la pregunta por alternativas en diferentes comunidades lingüísticas. Sustainability in Debate, 11(1), 98–124. https://doi.org/10.18472/SustDeb.v11n1.2020.26663

Similar Articles

1 2 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.