Environment and Sustainability in a Globalizing World

Andrea J. Nightingale

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781317501824
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Biological Sciences

From the Foundations in Global Studies series, this student-friendly text follows a two-pronged approach to help readers understand the globalizing processes relating to environment and sustainability, which are examined in a range of disciplines, including environmental studies, geography, global studies, political science, international affairs, comparative politics, and other disciplines. First, it presents foundational material that gives students the conceptual underpinnings required for rigorous analysis. Following the Introduction and Overview, Part One presents a brief historical overview of the concerns revolving around environmental sustainability in the modern era. The text then covers key concepts and theoretical constructs that define the global context for sustainable environmental practices, such as the key thinkers and theories pertaining to sustainable environmental practice, and the key international agencies and treaties involved in global discussions. The first part then explores the various models and ways to measure sustainability, the range of environmental domains at play in the sustainability dialogue, and the controversies surrounding them. Part Two employs case studies to examine theory and practice at work in particular situations. The case studies have been selected with an eye toward comprehensiveness of coverage across disciplines and across regions.

PART ONE

Background, Theory, and Context

1

Introduction and Overview

Andrea J. Nightingale, Tom Böhler, and Ben Campbell

Sustainability has been on the global agenda since 1972 when the idea was first debated at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm, Sweden. At that conference, sustainability was defined as “an economy in equilibrium with its basic ecological support system.” This definition echoed concurrent thinking in ecological science that was concerned with absolute limits, or “carrying capacity,” for populations within ecosystems. Researchers working in sustainability translated this thinking to human societies and economies, investigating how to control population growth and extractive practices (that is, economic activities that draw on the earth’s finite natural resources) to avoid overexploitation. Since the 1972 Stockholm conference, the idea of sustainability has undergone several transformations, but the core goal remains to understand how human societies can live in managed balance with their ecosystems.

This book is an introduction to environment and sustainability in a globalizing world taking two core principles as starting points. First, “sustainability” is not an environmental state that can be known or achieved. Rather, as a concept that has been proposed in various ways to regulate perceived damaging uses of the environment, sustainability requires critical scrutiny into its range of meanings and especially with respect to the different parties attempting to define it. Second, given that it is a concept (rather than an achievable state or goal), sustainability must be explored within the framework of globalization to understand the different ways that sustainable practices have been proposed or implemented around the world. How and why do ideas of sustainability show up in particular places, at specific moments in time? Who takes up the idea, and for what purposes? What are the consequences socially, politically, and ecologically? At core, then, this book is concerned with how sustainability is fundamentally a politically and historically contingent concept that can never be neutral. This lack of neutrality does not imply that a given initiative calling itself “sustainable” is necessarily flawed or illegitimate; the point of this book is that all such initiatives require us to think carefully about sustainability of what and for whom.

Researchers working on sustainability have tended to accept the three pillars of economies, ecologies, and societies as the main components shaping how humans exist within their environments. Precisely how these components operate together is hotly debated, and most definitions hold each one as conceptually separated. Sustainability is closely related to the practice of sustainable development, which can be understood as attempts to operationalize, or put into effect, ideas of sustainability. Sustainable development programs seek to govern or change relations among economies, societies, and ecologies in order to achieve sustainability. Sustainability is also often used to signal a commitment to economic growth, assuming that social and ecological sustainability will follow from that. Tensions between which of the three pillars are more important, whether they capture the full range of sustainability dilemmas, and how to integrate them expose some of the contradictions within the sustainability field. This text critically probes sustainability and sustainable development as concepts, and explores the implications of how these concepts are defined and the contradictions that exist between different applications of them.

The book performs these functions in a systematic way. Part One: Background, Theory, and Context lays out, in six chapters, the foundations needed to explore the environment and sustainability in a globalizing world. This chapter, Introduction and Overview, discusses the conceptual framework underlying many approaches to sustainability; it explores how the concepts of natural limits, the importance of cultural diversity and biodiversity, and ecosystems’ durability or fragility have affected specific local environment–society dynamics and the work of sustainable development projects. Chapter 2 explores the historical development of sustainability and its underlying conceptual, political, and contested nature. The rest of Part One discusses the general shape of the sustainability field on the ground. Chapter 3 focuses on the narratives that are shaped by theorists and practitioners, and the ideas that underlie them; Chapter 4 explores how those narratives are put into practice, or “enacted,” with a strong focus on how sustainability is measured; Chapter 5 turns toward “scale” as one of the main issues in enacting sustainable solutions; and Chapter 6, concluding Part One, highlights the range of environmental concerns that theorists and practitioners of sustainability address.

Part Two: Case Studies presents different contexts wherein questions of sustainability arise in on-the-ground projects. Some of the chapters look specifically at sustainable development projects and trace the resulting changes in both societies and environments. Other case studies explore technologies that raise sustainability questions, either positively or negatively, while the remainder are concerned with alternatives that seek to radically reframe what a sustainable society might look like. Throughout the book we return to the core questions: sustainability of what? and for whom? It is our conviction that the nature of and solutions for environmental problems change depending on the place and the scale at which the problem is viewed.

Aim of the Book

The main aims of this book are therefore twofold. The first is to explore how sustainability and sustainable development have been defined historically, and to assess the consequences of these definitions (and their transformations) over time and across different communities, including ordinary people, and those engaged in various development practices, businesses, and social movements. We probe how ideas of sustainability and sustainable development in different parts of the world both reflect and manifest within society–environment dynamics. Perhaps most importantly, we attend to what these differences mean for understanding the work that sustainability does in different parts of the world.

The second aim is to critically examine projects in different parts of the world that claim to create sustainable society–environment interactions. We suggest that one of the reasons so many sustainability projects have failed is because society–environment interactions have been inadequately conceptualized. The phrase “society–environment interactions” implies a separation between society and its ecosystems. Yet many scholars and activists have argued that it is precisely this way of thinking that has led to the problems of sustainability that many fear today. In Chapter 3: Narratives of Sustainability, we discuss in more detail the idea of “socionatures” and the importance of thinking about society–environment interactions in a fundamentally different manner. Socionatures is a concept used in academia to insist on the inseparability of society from its environment. The concept helps us think about how any change in society necessarily entails simultaneous changes in environments and ecosystems and vice versa, begging the question of whether the three pillars of sustainability are really the right kind of framing for transforming nature–society dynamics in a manner that promotes both social and environmental welfare. In Chapter 2: Background and History, we also introduce new movements that do not articulate their sustainability aims necessarily in these terms, but are similarly redefining how the conceptual and everyday flows and boundaries between society and environment are drawn. We explore the lessons that can be gleaned from efforts to live differently. Space, place, and scale are important. Some relatively small-scale projects seem to be more successful at fundamentally changing socionatures in a direction that appears to integrate society and environment in a more holistic way. Yet, we also see problems with the way that these ventures themselves serve to (re)define who has access to what resources and services from what spatial scales. How are the needs of local people balanced against the needs of the global community, for example? As such, we go back to our core questions: sustainability of what, and for whom?

Making Sense of Sustainability: Sustainability of What? Sustainability for Whom?

Throughout this book we make a distinction between the concepts “sustainability” and “sustainable development.” The term “sustainability” (or “sustainable”) is used to depict certain kinds of relationships between society and the biophysical environment. Precisely what constitutes sustainability has changed over time to the extent that some have argued it is meaningless as a concept. We argue the opposite. Large numbers of people and significant financial resources have been mobilized in the name of sustainability, all of which serve to shape society–environment dynamics, often with lasting consequences. So while sustainability remains for us a contested concept, it nevertheless deserves careful scrutiny.

When introduced for the first time in 1974 at a conference convened by the World Council of Churches, a “sustainable society” was defined as a society where scarce resources are equally distributed; where all people can participate in social decisions; and where the global capacity to supply food will exceed the need for food worldwide. As such, the concept evokes goals and desirable conditions that most people can stand behind, which helps to explain why this definition of the term is in such widespread use. It is important to recognize, however, that ideas about what sustainability or a sustainable society entails have changed over time, and today it is used to refer to everything from recycling campaigns to economic growth targets for businesses. Thus, in this book we therefore suggest that sustainability in itself is meaningless conceptually without defining more carefully our core questions: sustainability of what, and for whom?

The concept of “sustainable development,” on the other hand, has to do with the realization of sustainability and usually involves investment into projects intended to improve both societies and their environments. This desire to improve indicates the way that sustainability and sustainable development are normative and political; they are not neutral or value-free concepts but rather involve competing claims over what improvement entails. As such, these values and political dimensions—who defines them, who promotes them, and with what consequences for whom—cannot be removed from the ideas themselves. While the most common priorities are framed around justice, environment, and economy, there are many ways of realizing these goals. How different dimensions of sustainability are prioritized across projects and among interest groups is closely tied to how sustainability, progress, and development themselves are defined and measured.

What is less frequently discussed is who is included and who is excluded from any given sustainable development program and how these processes of inclusion and exclusion are generated both locally and globally. As some of the case studies in the book show, sustainable development projects require planners to make assumptions about benefits, inclusion, and needs that cannot be extended to larger scales and inevitably exclude some people. Local projects aimed at realizing sustainable development, for example, often depend on waste disposal or resource exploitation far away from the local project area. Sustainability plans will always create opportunities for some people in one place, and close down possibilities for others elsewhere.

This analysis implies that, while there are many possible visions for sustainable development, any credible vision must consider global spatial implications as well as questions about justice. Different countries or groups of people may, owing to ideology, cultural preferences, or natural conditions, want to follow different strategies in their struggle for a sustainable society. Understanding sustainable development in this way, the terms “developed” and “developing countries” become problematic. These terms indirectly imply that all societies are on the same development path, and thus close down our imagination of alternative development visions.

Developed countries, normally associated with fossil fuel–based, highly industrialized economies, at the moment tend to define sustainable development. Indeed, the concept of development itself has its roots in post–World War II attempts to rebuild the ruined economies, cities, and landscapes of Europe. Yet, considering the global environmental problems caused by “developed” countries, it has become clear that alternative environment–society interactions are required. This way of thinking has special importance when it comes to issues regarding sustainable development and globalization. A fundamental question remains about whether economic globalization can be “ecologized,” that is, made ecologically benign, as at the moment, sustainable development is either practiced on a very small scale, or diverted towards economic sustainability as the main aim. A frequently occurring argument within the current global sustainability narrative is that some kind of global governance is needed to overcome all of our global environmental problems. But questions of justice recur when we consider which mentality or ideology should underpin that global governance. Should it be based on the material growth of the most highly industrialized countries of today, or should it be based on the various ideas of living well (buen vivir), “resilience,” “de-growth,” and/or “antiglobalization”? This book does not seek to reconcile these questions; our goal is to hold them in creative tension. We argue that it is impossible for one group of people to resolve questions of who decides what pathway to take towards sustainability. Open and lively debate is required.

The Conceptual Framework of the Book

As stated above, this book begins from the premise that sustainability is not a state or something knowable with definable criteria, but rather a contested concept that organizes society– nature interactions in particular (and varying) ways. Throughout the book, we pay particular attention to the use of concepts, each of which is in some sense problematic in how it consciously and unconsciously influences our way of looking at the world. As all concepts are simplified interpretations of the world, they are also political; they represent one out of many possible perspectives. Yet some concepts stand out as less political or less ideological than others, particularly those that are framed as technical definitions or solutions. In this book we highlight this imbalance in terms of whether a concept is perceived as political or not. To be clear, all interpretations and solutions regarding sustainability are political because they are underpinned by particular commitments to ordering the world, whether they are framed as technical or not.

In order to avoid separating “societies, politics, and economies” from “ecologies,” we invoke the term “socionatures.” From this perspective, interconnections between different social, ecological, political, and economic practices and concepts are given special attention. In other words, understandings of processes or interrelations across borders or categories are as important as the borders and the categories themselves. Any analysis of them requires us to make arbitrary choices in time and space. In order to think in a holistic way about these interconnections and contingent outcomes, we use the terms “co-production” and “mutual becoming” to signal the dynamic qualities of socionatures, demonstrating how relationships between different dimensions are never stable and are constantly influencing each other. These ideas make our analytical task more complex, but also serve to reflect life in a more realistic manner. In Chapters 2 and 3 we elaborate on how these different concepts have shaped sustainability thinking and practice.

From this discussion, four core themes emerge that run throughout the book:

1. Narratives of sustainability and how these constructions succeed in guiding society–nature interactions.
2. Justice and how normative concerns are always part of sustainability claims.
3. Governance and the ways that sustainability motivates and organizes particular forms of participation in environmental governance.
4. Globalization, or how sustainability concerns serve to both connect and separate parts of the world and to raise serious questions about the current political economic order.

These themes are not distinct from each other, but help us to organize the discussion and to highlight their importance.

Narratives of Sustainability

Narratives refer to the languages and stories used to describe sustainable, as well as unsustainable, socionatures. Social scientists take narratives very seriously as important world-making tools that shape how people think and act. They define what is possible and des...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• About This Book and Series
• Part One: Background, Theory, and Context
• Part Two: Case Studies
• About the Editors and Contributors
• Index