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The Early History of Modern Ecological Economics
Abstract
This paper provides a historical perspective for the discussion on ecological economics as a special field of research. By studying the historical background of ecological economics, the present discussions and tensions inside the field might become easier to understand and to relate to. The study is inspired by other studies of the emergence of new research areas done by sociologists and historians of science, and includes both cognitive and social aspects, macro trends and the role of individuals. The basis for the paper is a combination of literature studies and interviews with key researchers from the field. The story opens with the emergence of the new environmental agenda in the 1960s, which was influenced by the scientific development in biology and ecology. Then it is outlined how the environmental challenge was met by economics in the 1960s. Around 1970, the basic ideas of ecological economics were given modern formulations, but it took a long gestation period from the beginning of the 1970s to the end of the 1980s, before ecological economics took shape. During this gestation period, the personal relationships between the actors were formed, and the meetings that were decisive for the formal establishment of ecological economics took place.
... In the 1980s, a resolve emerged among some ecologists, economists and other scholars regarding the need for humanity to better care for ecologies, economies, and societies [29]. Since that time, much has changed in the field. ...
... So far, then, focusing on ecology and society remains the dominant trend in the literature. For instance, as advocated for by Røpke in 2004, "the economy ought to be studied also, but not only, as a natural object, and that economic processes should consequently also be conceptualized in terms usually used to describe processes in nature" [29] (p. 296). ...
... "SEE Beyond Substantive Economics: Avoiding False Dichotomies" [68]. "The Early History of Modern Ecological Economics" [29]. "Michael Polanyi's vision of government and economics: Spanning Hayek and Keynes" [67]. ...
In ecological economics, common themes notwithstanding, there is a lack of consensus in basic views, with no signs of convergence. All the while, ecological, economic, and social crises continue to deepen globally. A question arises: philosophical speculation and mathematical modeling aside, how can we make progress in theory and praxis when there are mutually incompatible views and sources are transdisciplinary? This article describes a transdisciplinary methodology for effective collaboration that is already emergent in ecological economics, but which has not yet been identified. The method employed in the paper allows for but also is an extension of traditional empirical method. One looks not only to output (of, for example, disciplines) but also to operative methods generative of output. And so, for example, in the effort to interpret an author’s writings, one adverts not only to familiar sources of data but also to one’s own experience. Within this broader focus, components of the methodological solution to the problem in ecological economics begin to come into view. More specifically, sample texts from the literature reveal eight distinct but mutually dependent modes of thought and expression (or, in other words, eight distinct tasks). Four are past-oriented, and four are future-oriented. It also becomes evident that, at this time in history, these modes often are inadvertently combined in semi-random, fragmentary, and counter-productive ways. By the same token, however, when looking to future possibilities, emergent in contemporary ecological economics is a potential methodology for effective collaboration that will be explicitly centered on the eight modes identified. Because it will be grounded in operative methods rather than discipline-specific output, the methodology will be transdisciplinary functional collaboration.
... Desde 1970 se incrementó la oposición hacia el crecimiento económico ilimitado que perpetuaba la idea que la naturaleza podía ser sustituible por medio del avance tecnológico (Martínez -Alier, 2004). Surgieron también movimientos sociales protestando contra los peligros generados por los procesos de producción (Røpke, 2004). Posterior a la Crisis Energética de 1973, se desarrolló la primera definición moderna de Economía Circular que apareció en el informe Jobs for tomorrow: The potential for substituting manpower for energy escrito en 1976 por Walter Stahel y Genevieve Reday-Mulvey, en el cual propusieron el enfoque llamado Cradle to Cradle (Mabee, 2011). ...
... Los cambios sociales y ambientales que trajeron consigo dichos sucesos, fueron fundamentales para el discurso de la EE, pues se planteó una nueva conceptualización sobre la contaminación y el medio ambiente que logró impactar sobre la conciencia ambiental del público general perteneciente a esta época. De esta manera, los movimientos sociales protestaron contra los peligros generados por los procesos de producción que se precisaban como una vía para alcanzar el crecimiento económico deseado, pues se empezaba a reconocer la existencia de una crisis ambiental (Røpke, 2004). ...
... Los fundamentos iniciales de la EE parten de la observación básica de la economía humana como un sistema que está introducido dentro de la naturaleza por lo cual, conviene estudiar a la economía como un objeto natural, y los procesos económicos deben conceptualizarse para describir los procesos de la naturaleza (Røpke, 2004). El desarrollo de la EE, retomó elementos teóricos y metodológicos de la economía para analizar estudios relacionados con la entropía, balances de materia y con el uso de la definición de metabolismo considerando la interacción entre los sistemas naturales y sociales (Fischer -Kowalski, 1998). ...
Desde 1970 se incrementó la oposición hacia el crecimiento económico ilimitado que perpetuaba la idea que la naturaleza podía ser sustituible por medio del avance tecnológico (Martínez –
Alier, 2004). Surgieron también movimientos sociales protestando contra los peligros generados por los procesos de producción (Røpke, 2004). Posterior a la Crisis Energética de 1973, se desarrolló la primera definición moderna de Economía Circular que apareció en el informe Jobs for tomorrow: The potential for substituting manpower for energy escrito en 1976 por Walter Stahel y Genevieve Reday-Mulvey, en el cual propusieron el enfoque llamado Cradle to Cradle (Mabee, 2011).
La Economía Circular (EC) surgió como una crítica hacia el enfoque del sistema económico lineal tradicional, la aparición del concepto formalmente fue por Pearce y Turner (1990) dentro de la formulación de un nuevo modelo económico que se encontraba basado en la primera y segunda ley de termodinámica. Según Faber et al. (2002) y Lawn (2007), estas leyes de termodinámica indican que existe un límite con respecto a la capacidad de residuos de producción que pueden ser disminuidos
por medio del uso de la tecnología, donde no es posible la transformación la energía dado el principio
de conservación de esta, pero los procesos pueden ser direccionados de menor a mayor entropía.
El enfoque del Modelo de Economía Circular (MEC) basado en las leyes de la termodinámica, condiciona que los residuos resultantes de las etapas de la producción se redujeran o direccionaran a otras cadenas productivas.
El objetivo de esta investigación es identificar el surgimiento de la Economía Circular desde la perspectiva de la Economía Ecológica (E.E) y explicar si existe posibilidad de que esta pueda ser una
estrategia para lograr el desarrollo sustentable. Bajo el método de utilización de resultados teóricos se recopila una síntesis sobre la EC, se contrastan y analizan las diferentes acepciones y posturas en torno a la EC. Considerando como caso de estudio el reciclaje de Polietilén Tereftalato se explican los beneficios y complicaciones que pueden existir al aplicar un Modelo de Economía Circular. La problemática que se aborda es la generación de residuos plásticos municipales dada la producción y uso indiscriminado de las botellas de Polietilén Tereftalato (PET), el rápido crecimiento de la tasa de consumo de plástico en el mundo ha provocado la creación de grandes cantidades de residuos dificultando la eliminación de estos y generando problemas ambientales como el incremento de la huella de carbono y acumulación en diversos ecosistemas; esto se debe a la corta duración de vida útil de los plásticos pues se estima que, antes de convertirse en desechos, el 40% tiene una duración de vida inferior a un mes, aunque la media ponderada difiere con respecto a cada país (Panda et al., 2010). A partir de los avances tecnológicos actuales, el PET se puede reciclar e incorporar a cadenas de producción extendidas con un modelo de economía circular por lo que es posible una economía alternativa no lineal.
... Desde 1970 se incrementó la oposición hacia el crecimiento económico ilimitado que perpetuaba la idea que la naturaleza podía ser sustituible por medio del avance tecnológico (Martínez -Alier, 2004). Surgieron también movimientos sociales protestando contra los peligros generados por los procesos de producción (Røpke, 2004). Posterior a la Crisis Energética de 1973, se desarrolló la primera definición moderna de Economía Circular que apareció en el informe Jobs for tomorrow: The potential for substituting manpower for energy escrito en 1976 por Walter Stahel y Genevieve Reday-Mulvey, en el cual propusieron el enfoque llamado Cradle to Cradle (Mabee, 2011). ...
... Los cambios sociales y ambientales que trajeron consigo dichos sucesos, fueron fundamentales para el discurso de la EE, pues se planteó una nueva conceptualización sobre la contaminación y el medio ambiente que logró impactar sobre la conciencia ambiental del público general perteneciente a esta época. De esta manera, los movimientos sociales protestaron contra los peligros generados por los procesos de producción que se precisaban como una vía para alcanzar el crecimiento económico deseado, pues se empezaba a reconocer la existencia de una crisis ambiental (Røpke, 2004). ...
... Los fundamentos iniciales de la EE parten de la observación básica de la economía humana como un sistema que está introducido dentro de la naturaleza por lo cual, conviene estudiar a la economía como un objeto natural, y los procesos económicos deben conceptualizarse para describir los procesos de la naturaleza (Røpke, 2004). El desarrollo de la EE, retomó elementos teóricos y metodológicos de la economía para analizar estudios relacionados con la entropía, balances de materia y con el uso de la definición de metabolismo considerando la interacción entre los sistemas naturales y sociales (Fischer -Kowalski, 1998). ...
Libro dedicado a la economía social, circular y al desarrollo sustentable
... Otras razones son también mencionadas para explicar el retraso en el surgimiento de la economía ecológica: algunas contribuciones fueron escritas en un lenguaje y una perspectiva opuesta a el pensamiento marginalista dominante en economía y al pensamiento dominante en biología (Røpke, 2004), aunque también se menciona que estos autores no dieron respuestas a los problemas más apremiantes de la época y que otros problemas eran considerados más importantes para la comunidad académica y para la sociedad. ...
... La Ecología como campo nuevo del conocimiento, cuyo origen se encuentra en la Biología, fue de gran importancia, sobre todo la corriente que adopta el enfoque de sistemas y amplía su ámbito de abordaje desde la biología hacia una noción más amplia de ambiente. Los hermanos Eugene y Howard Odum se encuentran entre los principales biólogos y su contribución fue promover la integración de la perspectiva científica de la ecología con el movimiento ambientalista (Røpke, 2004). ...
... Igualmente la amenaza nuclear que devino en grandes protestas lideradas por científicos como Barry Commoner (1966), entre otros, contra los desastres nucleares, la bomba atómica y los desechos radioactivos. Todos estos acontecimientos obligaron la respuesta del sector público mediante políticas regulatorias y la creación de oficinas gubernamentales y comités científicos encargados de dar respuestas a las demandas sociales (Røpke, 2004). ...
El mundo actual desde hace un buen tiempo está íntimamente ligado a una noción de ciencia. Esto es así en el ámbito de la vida cotidiana, independientemente del entendimiento que de esta noción se tenga. Más íntima es esta relación en el ámbito académico. En la academia, la búsqueda del estatus científico de cualquier campo del conocimiento representa un permanente reto, aunque también en este ámbito coexistan diversas maneras de entender la noción de ciencia y de lo que es científico. No obstante, esa búsqueda a veces supone que el científico es el único conocimiento que vale o interesa a la academia. Más aún, que todo campo es o debe ser científico. Y, por tanto, es el método científico el instrumento por excelencia para el trabajo académico.
Adicional a la discusión que se desarrolla sobre la ciencia física, fáctica, o dura, como la ciencia “real” y sus diferencias con la ciencia social, formal (que también es objeto del método científico), en este trabajo se plantea la importancia de valorar otro conocimiento, que sin desconocer la importancia y la trascendencia del conocimiento científico, es también importante para el ámbito académico. Tal es el caso de la noción planificación.
La planificación intenta transformar los hechos, a diferencia de la ciencia que intenta describirlos, explicarlos y, eventualmente predecirlos. Ambas nociones son parte cotidiana del mundo actual, continuamente en transformación, pero, a diferencia de la ciencia, la planificación no es reconocida, y a veces es confundida con (o incluida en) la noción de ciencia. Intentamos en este trabajo incluir la planificación dentro del campo de la tecnología. Esta diferencia no se presenta como una disputa entre dos nociones opuestas, ni como dos paradigmas de la ciencia. Se trata de reconocer dos importantes nociones para el ámbito académico que resumiremos en este trabajo bajo la siguiente analogía: la investigación es a la ciencia lo que la planificación es a la tecnología.
A los fines de fundamentar este planteamiento siguiendo el planteamiento de Rittel y Webber (1972), se enfatiza en la diferencia que existe entre los problemas de la ciencia—problemas domesticados—y los problemas de la planificación—problemas endemoniados—cuya naturaleza y su consiguiente tratamiento demanda protocolos diferentes. Como se discutirá, la ciencia ha intentado dar respuesta a ambos tipos de problemas, tal es el caso de la Ciencia Pos Normal, desconociendo la naturaleza de cada tipo de problemas. La investigación científica es el protocolo pertinente a los problemas domesticados. En cuanto a la planificación, es este trabajo se propone profundizar en la praxeología como protocolo pertinente a los problemas endemoniados.
En el desarrollo de este trabajo discutiremos estas dos nociones de ciencia y planificación en dos campos del Conocimiento: la Economía y el Ambiente. Intentaremos diferenciar entre ciencia económica y planificación económica; y entre ciencia ambiental y planificación ambiental. Se entiende de entrada que una discusión de este tipo es el resultado de una investigación, que este trabajo es un trabajo académico en el sentido que tradicionalmente se reconoce un trabajo de este tipo, pero su objetivo es evidenciar que tanto métodos como problemas y, más importante, resultados, son de naturaleza muy distinta cuando se investiga o cuando se planifica. No es lo mismo comprender cuál es el hecho existente, que tratar de descubrir cuál es el hecho deseado.
En la Economía, y también en el Ambiente, esto implica discusión de paradigmas. Al respecto se revisarán los cuestionamientos que se hacen a los paradigmas dominantes de la ciencia (predominantemente unidisciplinar y parcelado) y la planificación (predominantemente tecnocrático) en los campos de la económica (predominantemente divorciado de las leyes de la termodinámica) y del ambiente (predominantemente ecológico). A partir de esta revisión intentaremos evidenciar a qué nos referimos cuando hablamos de Ciencia Económica y de Planificación Económica. Igualmente lo intentaremos con Ciencia Ambiental y con Planificación Ambiental. De manera particular intentaremos evidenciar que el énfasis de la Economía se encuentra en el mundo del constructo social—no en vano se reconoce dentro del campo de la ciencia social—pero en la práctica es más planificación que ciencia. A la inversa, en el Ambiente, ampliando la noción de Ecología, el énfasis se encuentra en el mundo natural y, en la práctica, es más investigación que planificación.
Finalmente discutiremos la importancia de vincular la economía con el ambiente, tanto en la ciencia como en la planificación. Al respecto existen importantes contribuciones a las que se hará referencia, pero observaremos que la confusión entre lo que podría ser una ciencia de la economía ambiental y la planificación económica ambiental, continúa presente en el ámbito académico. Aclarar esta confusión sigue siendo el reto por venir para lo cual se propone dar mayor importancia al pensamiento económico ambiental e incorporar como campo de estudio y práctica académica la planificación económica ambiental. En ese sentido este trabajo pretende ser una contribución.
Palabras clave: Ciencia, Planificación, Economía, Ambiente, Problemas endemoniados, Ciencia Económica ambiental, Planificación Económica ambiental, Praxeología.
... Amid the economic gains, the environment was seen as a victim of human dominance on a scale had not been seen before. Since the early 1960s, concepts of environment and pollution became part of public awareness [10]. Moreover, increasing population growth and the need for more food and energy sources become contentious issues [10]. ...
... Since the early 1960s, concepts of environment and pollution became part of public awareness [10]. Moreover, increasing population growth and the need for more food and energy sources become contentious issues [10]. Media publicity (Films, TV programmes) exposed ecological disasters [4,5]. ...
The 1969 UN Report “Problems of the Human Environment” was a seminal work that first highlighted environmental problems at a global scale. This report underpinned a series of subsequent international summits and conventions of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and the subsequent three global conventions on Biodiversity, Climate Change and Desertification. We assessed the report half a century after its publication to track changes in vocabulary and highlight critical lessons that could have been learned. The assessment contains several strengths and weaknesses that are pertinent to modern global-scale analyses. Many issues of that day have declined in importance or been superseded, and several major environmental problems (including climate change and plastic pollution) were not foreseen. Most of the report’s predictions proved to be much more conservative than proved by reality (a criticism that has also been levelled at contemporary IPCC reports). The report, however, did forewarn of global pandemics and stimulated thinking on a global scale that led to identification of the current climate crisis.
... The ability to meet the needs. Generations Ropke, 2004Ropke, 1794 The The SD concept is connected with the global concerns about the judicious use of the available resources so that it will be possible to satisfy the needs of the presented future generations. SD is a call to create a balance between economic growth, environmental preserve and social prosperity. ...
... Due to this, the rate of the noospheres' world's formation entirely depends on scientific knowledge and ability to correctly apply general laws in social practice, and the time of its formation is determined by the period of mankind's mastery of these laws. Ropke (2004) formulated the ecological economy as the interaction of natural and economic processes as a result of human exposure. The natural processes in the sense that they can be considered as biological, physical and chemical processes and transformations. ...
The paper focuses on key questions relating to the concepts of development, sustainability and sustainable development, and also presents the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the associated discussions regarding its complementarities and benefits. It took more than 40 years for the SD concept to take shape and turn into a global agenda. On the other hand, there is still no formalized description of a sustainable or monitoring system, of the requirements
necessary for the development criteria and measures. The aim of this article is to contribute by providing concise data about its SD concept evolution, principles and their implications for the global, national and individual actions aimed to achieve SD. From the angle of a future view on sustainability, the paper reinterprets the information field, significance of the ecological economics concept (monographic
method) and further elaborates on the spatial-temporal energy flows (power) approach for monitoring the socio-economic system development.
Keywords: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), sustainability, ecological economics, regional economic, flows of energy.
... As parallel development, it was also in the 1970s when economists like Herman Daly, Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, or Kenneth Boulding started questioning another dogma of economic thought, namely the disjunction of the economy from its environment, and they promoted the embeddedness of the economy in the social and the ecological environment. Their work gave rise to ecological economics striving to find a way for the economy to stay within planetary boundaries for the sake of strong sustainability [42]. In current scientific discourses, these two fields often meet up in research that combines the psychological dimensions of behavioral economics and sustainability. ...
... It was not their aim to specifically deal with discounting behaviors; nonetheless, in their discourses they identified the necessity for practices that fight discounting: patient capital, employee or partial ownership, coopetition and networking, open-source knowledge, and transparency. Discounting is a behavioral response that exists in the individual psyche [45] but also in institutionalized forms in organizations and the whole of the economy [42]. Cuvée organizations were not discussed to directly influence individual behavior, but the organization itself provides a space where these automatic cognitive responses can become conscious or can be influenced by organizational practices. ...
This paper discusses the role and responsibility of business organizations in a sustainability transition with a thought-provoking hypothetical construct, the cuvée organization. The aim of the paper is to introduce and conceptualize this normative concept on what sustainable and responsible business would look like in an ideal world—more specifically, which meta features should characterize a business organization that is designed for sustainability? It also tests the concept’s applicability to a micro-process, an everyday challenge any organization aiming for sustainability would face, namely discounting. The concept of the cuvée organization emerged from participatory backcasting, a normative scenario-building exercise conducted with a sustainability expert panel. In this co-creative process, the panel capitalized on the metaphor of cuvée wine and winemaking, which provided the cognitive means to chart the unknown. The emerged concept of the cuvée organization stands for a business archetype which is designed to serve a prosocial cause, subordinating activities and structural features accordingly. When applying this construct to discounting, our approach lies with ecological rationality in behavioral decision making as well as the practice-based approach of corporate strategy research. In this theoretically rigorous effort, we aim to show which meta-characteristics could support an organizational structure leading to better decision making, aiming to avoid various forms of temporal and spatial discounting. The originality of the research is filling the normative vision with details through the conceptualization of the cuvée organization. On the level of methodologies, our research contributes to understanding the novelty and applicability of backcasting processes and provides an astounding example for the use of metaphors in future studies.
... Furthermore, to build co-creative partnerships with nature, shareholders and investors invest a high share of financial returns to improve other forms of capital than only financial, with a focus on natural capital (Fullerton, 2015). This is based on ecological economics, a transdisciplinary field that has researched the interdependencies and the coevolution of human societies and natural ecosystems since the late 1980s (Røpke, 2004). Natural capital refers to a stock of natural resources, including ecosystems, that provide a flow of goods and services to humans and organizations, also called ecosystem services, i.e., the benefits that people obtain from ecosystems (Hernández-Blanco and Costanza, 2018). ...
Regeneration has become a debated topic in organizational studies, yet its characteristics and distinctions from sustainability and circular business models remain unclear. This study aims to provide an initial framework for regenerative business models and differentiate them from sustainable or circular models. Employing literature reviews, six focus groups with international and indigenous participants, and comparisons with seminal articles on sustainable and circular models, this study finds that organizations with regenerative business models focus on planetary health and societal wellbeing. They create and deliver value at multiple stakeholder levels—including nature, societies, customers, suppliers and partners, shareholders and investors, and employees—through activities promoting regenerative leadership, co-creative partnerships with nature, and justice and fairness. Capturing value through multi-capital accounting, they aim for a net positive impact across all stakeholder levels. Regenerative business models share design approaches with sustainable and circular models but differ in their main goals and systemic perspectives. Achieving regenerative business models requires strong policy frameworks, including animal and nature rights and true pricing. Further research is needed to explore how organizations can incorporate intrinsic notions of value beyond capital and avoid new forms of greenwashing when adopting regeneration and net positive impact narratives.
... The solution is its restriction, which is impossible to implement in a capitalist economy. As a mechanism for the transition to a green economy, ecological economics propose an increase in taxation on the use of natural resources while reducing the tax burden on other factors of production (Røpke, 2004). The post-Keynesian school considers a number of problems delaying green growth, highlighting the low flow of investment in green projects as the main fundamental uncertainty (Fontana & Sawyer, 2016). ...
Russia has entered the contours of the modern global ecosystem in sustainable finance and responsible investment practices. Its national projects are complex and ensure a balance of all three components of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental factors. In 2019, an active formation of the green finance market took place in Russia. The green economy was officially proclaimed by the federal government and industry experts. Target programs for environmental protection were adopted at the national and regional levels, taking into account the ecological specifics of the regions. However, the Russian economy is highly dependent on the extraction of mineral resources and hydrocarbons (e.g., oil and gas). This chapter investigates the Russian federal government's policies to resolve the ongoing environmental issues in the country. This involves the critical evaluation of various state programs, the effectiveness of their implementation, and the examination of the legislation and macro statistics. The following conclusions have been made. The national strategy for financing sustainable development has an unclear structure with incomplete coverage and an unsystematic approach. Hence, the transition to the model of green economic growth is questionable. The definition of the green economy is not adequately formed; thus, it is challenging for the government and businesses to measure, manage and regulate it. As a result, it complicates the formation of financing mechanisms for green investments. This is also constrained by the lack of general agreement on which sectors of the national economy are recognised as negatively affecting the environment and which are not.
... Because neoclassical economics is not designed to handle a complex social and environmental problem, ecological economics moved away and created its theoretical economic framework during the 1960s and 1970s (Ayres & Kneese, 1971;Ayres, Kneese, & d'Arge, 1970). Ecological economics has some unique features that do not exist in environmental economics (Røpke, 2004). Ecological economics could be classified as an interdisciplinary branch of knowledge with some influence over various sciences, such as social science, biological science, and political science (Ropke, 2004(Ropke, , 2005. ...
... In philosophical studies, this view can be connected to Limitarianism which suggests that there 'should be upper limits to the amount of income and wealth a person can hold' (Robeyns, 2019, p. 251). This worldview with limits has been present at the core of ecological economics since its beginning (Røpke, 2004) and can be traced back to Boulding's essay on spaceship Earth (Boulding, 1966) in which he advocates for a transition from a 'cowboy economy' without limits to a "spaceman' economy, in which the earth has become a single spaceship, without unlimited reservoirs of anything, neither for extraction nor for pollution'. New approaches have since been developed. ...
Preventing the increase of economic inequality in a non-growing economy is a major challenge. In post-growth research, scholars agree that reducing the income and assets of the wealthy must be part of any strategy for reducing inequality. Nevertheless, caps on wealth and income remain surprisingly under-researched. After discussing the role of these caps in post-growth transformation, this paper aims to fill this gap by exploring the main parameters that policymakers need to consider when designing caps on income or assets. We performed a qualitative content analysis of 14 policy proposals, including four historical cases. We then built an analytical framework with seven key parameters. This framework reveals a broad set of public policies that policymakers and researchers can consider, including new options for wealth caps. We furthermore discuss how such policies should be designed to increase public support, and we highlight recurring patterns about the context in which they were proposed. We also show how these radical solutions reduced economic inequality in the 20th century in western countries and how policymakers can draw on those examples to design post-growth policies that decrease inequality and are also popular.
... Ecological economics is a transdisciplinary field of research focusing on the interrelationships between the human economy and natural ecosystems. Ecological economists see the economy and nature as much more intertwined than commonly conceptualised in mainstream economics, which values nature for the resources it provides and for its capacity to absorb waste and pollution (Røpke, 2004). Ecological economists reject the ontological separation of nature and the economy, emphasising that human economy is "embedded in nature" (Røpke, 2005). ...
There is broad scientific consensus that to avoid catastrophic climate change, global warming should be stabilised well below 2 °C compared to the pre-industrial period. Alarmingly, the window of opportunity to bring down greenhouse gas emissions in line with this objective is rapidly closing. Existing climate mitigation literature agrees that the time when gradual emission reductions could address the issue of climate change is over, and that nothing short of a profound transformation of the energy system, economy, and lifestyles is required to accomplish the necessary emission reductions.
Multiple scenarios have been produced by integrated assessment models (IAMs) that explore different mitigation avenues to accomplish a low-carbon energy transition. In this thesis, I analyse whether existing scenarios adequately represent biophysical constraints to the transition. Moreover, I explore if existing scenarios consider the full range of mitigation options to reduce emissions, and whether the scenarios assume adequate energy to enable a flourishing life for all. Finally, I discuss potential implications that a transition to a low-carbon energy system may have for the economy.
Existing mitigation scenarios estimate emissions and energy pathways that would be compatible with limiting global warming to 1.5‒2 °C. However, at present, these scenarios do not estimate the amount of energy needed to build and maintain a low-carbon energy system, nor the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that would be associated with such a transition. This is a major gap in the literature, as it remains unclear how much of the remaining carbon budget would be tied to the transition, and how much of it would effectively remain for society to produce goods and provide services using fossil fuels. I calculate that the emissions associated with the transition could range from 70 GtCO2 to 395 GtCO2, with a cross-scenario average of 195 GtCO2. This corresponds to approximately 0.1 °C of additional global warming.
I show that the transition could drive up the energy requirements of the energy system and may require a decrease in per capita net energy use of 10%‒34% during the initial push for the transition. Nonetheless, in contrast to what has been argued in previous studies, a low-carbon energy transition would not necessarily lead to a decline in the Energy-Return-on-Energy-Invested (EROI) of the overall energy system in the long-term.
I conclude that a continued growth in energy use may be incompatible with the goal of avoiding dangerous climate change. Although use of negative emissions technologies may unlock additional energy from fossil fuels, the overall increase in available energy may be exaggerated in existing scenarios, due to overestimation of realistic mitigation potential and disregard of the high energy requirements of these technologies. Furthermore, use of negative emissions technologies may decrease the efficiency of energy provisioning to society, leading to increased economic expenditure for energy.
The conclusion that a low-carbon energy transition may limit the prospects of growth in energy use raises concern, as energy is a key requirement to produce goods and services. How do existing mitigation scenarios address the socioeconomic implications of this energy constraint?
I find that existing mitigation scenarios perpetuate the striking inequalities of energy use between the Global North and Global South. Lack of equitable convergence is further underlined by the scenarios that assume negative emissions. Although these scenarios allow for higher global energy use, the additional energy is overwhelmingly allocated to the countries in the Global North, which have the highest per-capita energy consumption. Moreover, existing mitigation scenarios do not consider that limits to energy growth may have a negative effect on the economy. On the contrary, mitigation scenarios typically assume economic growth is to increase in the future, despite lower energy use. To square economic growth with decreasing energy use, mitigation scenarios assume rapid and unprecedented improvements in the efficiency of energy use in the global economy. However, feasibility of accomplishing such improvements has been fiercely contested. To explore if there are alternative pathways to accomplishing a low-carbon energy transition, I outline a series of scenarios that assume lower rates of global economic growth. I demonstrate that lower economic growth makes it possible to accomplish sufficient emission reductions with more moderate energy efficiency improvements and a slower build-up of a low-carbon energy system. I discuss the concerns regarding negative implications that lower growth may have on social wellbeing and the ability to pay for the transition. I argue that post-growth policies focused on wealth redistribution may lead to desirable social outcomes without compromising the aim of avoiding dangerous climate change.
... Systems ecologists such as Charlie Hall soon contributed to ecological economics with tools like the EROI (energy return on investment). This early story was competently summarized by Røpke (2004). ...
The first 21 years of my life were spent in Barcelona (all of them under General Franco’s regime, since I was born in 1939). The following 14 years I spent in Oxford, Stanford, in Andalusia and again in Oxford (St. Antony’s College) until 1973. In between, long stays in Cuba, Peru and Brazil and some periods in Paris, with the publishing house of Ruedo ibérico. At 35 years of age and feeling rather defeated by the lack of “transitional justice” in Spain after Franco’s death, I came back to Barcelona, with a chair in the new Universitat Autònoma (UAB) in Economics and Economic History, which I held until I was 70 years of age. I continued my travels in the sabbatical years, to Oxford in 1984–1985, Stanford again in 1988–1989, to Ecuador (the Flacso in Quito) in 1995–1995, to Yale University in 1999–2000 and in the meantime also often to India after my first visit in 1988. My interests and my books followed this trajectory, first some books on agrarian history and land conflicts in Andalusia, Cuba and Peru between 1968 and 1977, then between 1984 and 2022 many books on ecological economics and political ecology.
... The field of ecological economics was born out of the perceived need for a novel framing of the sustainability discussion, breaking away from the obsolete narratives of orthodox economics and the pitfalls of reductionism (Christensen, 1989;Martínez-Alier and Schlüpmann, 1987;Røpke, 2004). Early proponents emphasized the importance of the biophysical dimension of the economic system and the key role of non-equilibrium thermodynamics and systems ecology in shaping societal functioning and development (Georgescu-Roegen, 1971, 1975, 1977Hall et al., 1986;Odum, 1971;Prigogine, 1980;White, 1943;Zipf, 1941). ...
MuSIASEM provides a set of new narratives about the economic process that responds to the original challenges of the field of Ecological Economics. These alternative narratives can be used to identify and integrate four aspects of sustainability: (i) feasibility – compatibility with external constraints (processes outside of human control); (ii) viability – compatibility with internal constraints (processes under human control), (iii) desirability – compatibility with the stability of the social bonding (affective interactions in societal practices); (iv) security – the level of openness of the metabolic pattern (the extent of externalization of socio-economic and environmental pressures to other countries and ecosystems through imports). To achieve this result, MuSIASEM uses a complexity frame of reference. Starting out from the principles of bioeconomics of Geoergescu-Roegen, it elaborates the concept of metabolic pattern of social-ecological systems to explore the impredicative relations over the characteristics of structural and functional elements across scales and dimensions. Using relational analysis and integrating three different accounting metrics, the analytical toolkit generates a rich information space describing the impredicative entanglement of different attributes of performance across dimensions and scales. Rather than making predictions, MuSIASEM explores the option space of plausible changes based on a series of “what if” questions. This quantitative accounting framework can be applied in diagnostic mode, to identify critical sustainability issues, and in anticipation mode, to identify implausible policies. MuSIASEM thus provides a flexible decision support for multi-level governance while guaranteeing the transparency of the choices made by the analyst.
... She argues that DE is an economic mindset suitable to tackle 21st-century challenges, as it holistically considers planetary boundaries and social needs as the basis for economic and social activities (Leach et al., 2013;Raworth, 2012;Rockström et al., 2009;Steffen et al., 2015). Thereby, Raworth (2017) builds her argumentation partly on ecological economics, a field of research that has been established more than 30 years ago (Costanza, 1991;Dale, 2020;Daly, 2007;Faber, 2008;Røpke, 2004). As ecological economics is a broad and diverse field of research that encompasses various competing schools of thought (Lucas, 2010;Seager, 2008;Spash, 2017), Raworth (2017) consolidated some of these theories and enriched them by ideas from other fields of research with the intention to develop DE as a novel economic mindset (Dale, 2020). ...
... She argues that DE is an economic mindset suitable to tackle 21st-century challenges, as it holistically considers planetary boundaries and social needs as the basis for economic and social activities (Leach et al., 2013;Raworth, 2012;Rockström et al., 2009;Steffen et al., 2015). Thereby, Raworth (2017) builds her argumentation partly on ecological economics, a field of research that has been established more than 30 years ago (Costanza, 1991;Dale, 2020;Daly, 2007;Faber, 2008;Røpke, 2004). As ecological economics is a broad and diverse field of research that encompasses various competing schools of thought (Lucas, 2010;Seager, 2008;Spash, 2017), Raworth (2017) consolidated some of these theories and enriched them by ideas from other fields of research with the intention to develop DE as a novel economic mindset (Dale, 2020). ...
Research on sustainable business models (SBM) is a young and dynamic stream of research that is essential for exploring how companies propose, create, deliver and capture value (Bocken et al., 2014; Lüdeke-Freund & Dembek, 2017; Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2018; Stubbs & Cocklin, 2008). Recently, scholarly interest has moved towards the question of how SBM fosters broader sustainability transitions and, in turn, how such transitions spawn novel SBM (Aagaard et al., 2021; Proka, Beers & Loorbach, 2018). Scholars refer to this field of research as ‘business models for
sustainability transitions’ and understand ‘sustainability transitions’ as “fundamental change at a societal level” (Aagaard et al., 2021, p.2). This is particularly important in face of worldwide social-ecological challenges like climate change or environmental degradation...
... Il est possible d'introduire l'Économie Écologique en présentant son histoire propre (Godard, 2004;Røpke, 2004;Douai et Vivien, 2009) ou en insistant sur les ruptures par rapport à la théorie standard (Boidin et Zuindeau, 2006;Froger et al., 2016). Nous retraçons dans les grandes lignes les singularités de cette approche. ...
... -making the economy and other human activities compatible with the regenerative and assimilative capacities of the biosphere (Rees, 2015b;Røpke, 2004;) -targeting the social value of ecosystem capital instead of use value (Ekins et al., 2003;Gómez-Baggethun & Barton, 2013) -analysis to envisage the amortisation of an ecosystem's capital degradation through accounting norms and standards required for efficient ecosystem management and conservation actions. ...
Most approaches to estimate ecological value use monetary valuation. Here, we propose a different framework accounting ecological value in biophysical terms. More specifically, we are implementing the ecosystem natural capital accounting framework as an operational adaptation and extension of the UN System of Economic and Environmental Accounting/Ecosystem Accounting. The proof-of-concept study was carried out at the Rhône river watershed scale (France). Four core accounts evaluate land use, water and river condition, bio-carbon content of various stocks of biomass and its uses, and the state of ecosystem infrastructure. Integration of the various indicators allows measuring ecosystems overall capability and their degradation. The 12-year results are based on spatial–temporal geographic information and local statistics. Increasing levels of intensity of use are registered over time, that is, the extraction of resources surpasses renewal. We find that agriculture and land artificialisation are the main drivers of natural capital degradation.
... The highly influential planetary boundaries concept emphasizes the reliance of life on earth and human civilizations on the functioning and stability of several earth systems such as those that relate to climate, biodiversity, or biochemical flowsand how the growth-driven environmental impacts pose serious threats for transgressing key thresholds beyond a safe operating space (that must, of course, be deliberated socially). 3 The broader ecological critique of growth, which spans social movements and parts of the more radical academia, incorporates these arguments but also claims that economic growth is not sustainable and cannot be made sustainable in the mid-to near-term future by transforming the form this growth takes (green, qualitative, intelligent, sustainable growth etc.), by technological progress (increases in efficiency, shifts in products produced, digitalization, etc.) or by merely shifting the resource and energy base (renewable energies, circular economy, bioeconomy) (Martínez-Alier, 1987;Røpke, 2004). An increasing number of studies show that it is highly unlikely that rich countries can achieve absolute and sufficiently fast decoupling of GDP-growth from both emissions and material throughput, and that achieving sustainability targets is much more likely if efficiency gains are not leading to rebounds effects due to growth, and if these are complemented by a focus on demand reductions and sufficiency (see, for example, Hickel and Kallis, 2020;Parrique et al., 2019;Wiedmann et al., 2020). ...
While economic growth is still at the centre of politics around the world, driven by economic crises and ecological breakdown critiques of growth as well as calls for post-growth or degrowth are on the rise. This paper advances a systematization of various currents of growth critiques in historical perspective. Going beyond standard accounts, it demonstrates that next to a narrow and mainly ecological critique of growth, which emerged starting in the 1950s and criticized GDP accounting and growth as a policy goal, there were also broader critiques of the phenomenon of growth itself, which emerged already since at least the eighteenth century and criticize the phenomenon of economic growth itself. To substantiate this argument, eight currents of growth critiques are analysed by focusing on their core arguments and historical trajectories: ecological, socio-economic, feminist, South–North, cultural, anti-capitalist, critique of industrialization, as well as reactionary growth criticism.
... EE as a distinctive school of thought in heterodox economics was born as a critique to environmental economics 4 in the early 1970s and institutionalised with the establishment of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) in 1988 (Røpke, 2004). EE recognises that planetary boundaries and entropy pose natural limits to growth, embraces strong sustainability, stresses the intrinsic value of nature, the limits to substitution and its incommensurability, commits itself to interdisciplinarity and pluralism, and seeks an integration of a variety of fields (e.g., ecology, economics, politics, and ethics), thereby developing a 'political economy of nature' [Spash, (1999), p.432]. 5 Whereas neoclassical macroeconomics (e.g., the circular flow model) regards the economy as an isolated, closed system that does not exchange material and/or energy with its natural surroundings, EE -in line with the ontology of open systems in CR -sees the economy as an open and embedded system, with nature as "tap and sink, or as first and last phase of economic activity" [Deléage, (1989), p.16]. ...
In this paper, I defend the view that pluralism in economics needs to be metatheory-informed and that critical social scientists must reflect upon their underlying ontological, epistemological, methodological, and ethical assumptions. As a feminist ecological economist interested in making degrowth (more) feminist, I ask to what extent a critical realist metatheory can ‘philosophically underlabor’ a feminist degrowth approach. This paper introduces Critical Realism (CR) and critically examines it in Ecological Economics, Degrowth, and Feminist Economics debates. Subsequently, I draw on the example of care to show how a CR metatheory can elucidate how the deep, underlying structure of separation in economics is responsible for the devaluation of care. I conclude that if combining a realist-relational ontology, an intersectional and postcolonial feminist standpoint epistemology, critical methodological pluralism, and an ethical foundation centering around the sustainability of life, a CR metatheory can serve a feminist degrowth approach well.
... The first ontological commitment of academic sustainability writing is a view of the world as a set of systems. This reflects the intellectual roots of the disciplines in Systems Ecology and System Dynamics (Røpke, 2004;Velenturf and Purnell, 2021). The view of the world as systems comes through strongly in the way authors discuss their sub-disciplines. ...
In this paper I explore the ways that academic sustainability writing engages with economic systems and consider the performative effects of these modes of engagement. Using capitalist realism and capitalocentrism, I define three mechanisms by which non-capitalist futures are foreclosed: 1) Actively Recreating Capitalism – where industries like advertising actively seek to recreate and reinforce capitalist values. 2) Capitalism Unseen – where capitalism is perceived as natural and synonymous with all economic forms. 3) Making a Monolith of Capitalism, where anti-capitalist writers focus so much on capitalism that they make it appear undefeatable. Examining the frequency of different terms used by academic sustainability writers when talking about economic systems, and looking at two different uses of the term ‘capital’ I argue that academic sustainability writers engage with and are influenced by these mechanisms in different ways. Currently, there is a substantive body of academic sustainability writing that contributes to Capitalism Unseen. However, there are also strands of work that emphasis discontinuity and change within economic systems. I argue that such work provides a model for escaping Capitalism Unseen and avoiding Making a Monolith of Capitalism.
... Az ökológiai közgazdaságtan abból a frusztrációból született, amit számos tudós és kutató átélt abban a tekintetben, hogy az egymástól elszigetelt szakpolitikai gondolkodás és cselekvés a globális környezeti problémákra és azok lokális megjelenésére nem kínál működőképes megoldást. Az ökológiai közgazdaságtan történetével foglalkozó írások (Röpke, 2004(Röpke, , 2005Spash, 2013) szerint az ökológiai közgazdaságtan közpolitikai tudomány (policy science), sőt egyenesen "mozgalom". Eredetileg (1) számos tudományágból vonzott olyan kutatókat, akik egyetértettek abban, hogy (2) a (globális) környezeti kihívások komolyan veszélyeztetik az emberi társadalmak jövőjét (és magát a természetet), és (3) emiatt (szak/köz)politikai beavatkozásra van szükség, s mindezekre (4) az uralkodó közgazdaságtani iskola (s benne a neoklasszikus környezetgazdaságtan) nem kínál megfelelő megoldásokat. ...
A komplex és nehezen megoldható ökológiai válsághelyzetek új szemléletmódot és új szakpolitikai cselekvési módokat igényelnek. Az ökológiai közgazdaságtan ebben az értelemben születésétől kezdve közpolitikát szolgáló tudományterületnek (policy science) határozta meg önmagát. Ez az önmeghatározás egyúttal együtt jár azzal a célkitűzéssel, hogy a gazdaságot ökologizálni kívánja; azaz ökológiai értelemben fenntarthatóvá akarja tenni. Mindez pedig a társadalom és a politika egy új, transzformatív víziójával és valódi átalakításával jár kéz a kézben az ökológiai közgazdászok számára. Értékelésünk szerint azonban az ökológiai közgazdaságtan sikertelen saját normatív közpolitikai céljainak elérésében. Ennek több oka van: a radikális elméleti mag felpuhulása; a részvételt és deliberációt nem támogató közpolitikai intézményi közeg; a kidolgozatlan politikai vízió; és az önreflektív és akció-orientált kutatásmódszertanok háttérben maradása. A közpolitikai sikerességhez elengedhetetlen az ökológiai közgazdaságtan politikai víziójának kidolgozása és a radikális környezeti-társadalmi mozgalmakkal együttműködő és akcióorientált, nyíltan értékelkötelezett (politikai) kutatói szerepvállalás.
... 32 Correcting such market failures is difficult because they increase with economic scale. 33 A diversity of thought has emerged that challenges the assumptions underpinning mainstream economics. 34 The alternatives to the mainstream are often referred to as heterodox or pluralist economics approaches. ...
Despite substantial attention within the fields of public and planetary health on developing an economic system that benefits both people's health and the environment, heterodox economic schools of thought have received little attention within these fields. Ecological economics is a school of thought with particular relevance to public and planetary health. In this article, we discuss implications of key ecological economics ideas for public and planetary health, especially those related to critiques of gross domestic product as a measure of progress and economic growth as the dominant goal for economic and policy decision making. We suggest that ecological economics aligns well with public health goals, including concern for equality and redistribution. Ecological economics offers an opportunity to make the transition to an economic system that is designed to promote human and planetary health from the outset, rather than one where social and environmental externalities must be constantly corrected after the fact. Important ideas from ecological economics include the use of a multidimensional framework to evaluate economic and social performance, the prioritisation of wellbeing and environmental goals in decision making, policy design and evaluation that take complex relationships into account, and the role of provisioning systems (the physical and social systems that link resource use and social outcomes). We discuss possible interventions at the national scale that could promote public health and that align with the prioritisation of social and ecological objectives, including universal basic income or services and sovereign money creation. Overall, we lay the foundations for additional integration of ecological economics principles and pluralist economic thinking into public and planetary health scholarship and practice.
... Dua ekonom yang menghadirinya Robert Costanza dan Herman Daly terinspirasi oleh pertemuan tersebut. Mereka membuat edisi khusus jurnal Ecological Modeling on ecological economics yang menjadi publikasi pertama di mana konsep ekonomi ekologi digunakan dalam memuat isu-isu yang berkaitan dengan ekonomi dan ekologi secara khusus (Røpke, 2004). Para ahli ekonomi ekologi mengakui bahwa ekonomi manusia adalah bagian dalam ekosistem bumi. ...
Ilmu ekonomi berkontribusi meletakan pentingnya konservasi sumberdaya alam dan lingkungan melalui teknik valuasi jasa ekosistem. Perekonomian Pedesaan di Negara-negara berkembang sangat tergantung pada kelestarian jasa ekosistem. Beragam manfaat yang diperoleh masyarakat pedesaan dari jasa ekosistem untuk kehidupan sehari-hari. Namun, sebagian besar kualitas dan kuantitas jasa ekosistem di pedesaan semakin menurun dikarenakan degradasi alam oleh kegiatan antropogenik. Belum lagi tidak semua jasa ekosistem dinilai dan diapresiasi secara ekonomi. Karenanya, studi dan gagasan tentang penilaian dan pembayaran jasa ekosistem di pedesaan menjadi penting untuk dilakukan. Buku ini memaparkan bagaimana latar belakang penilaian dan pembayaran jasa ekosistem di pedesaan dengan fokus studi pada negara-negara berkembang dan menyajikan berbagai metode yang bisa dilakukan dalam melakukan penilaian jasa ekosistem. Buku ini diharapkan dapat menjadi referensi ilmiah dalam mempelajari penilaian dan pembayaran jasa ekosistem, khususnya pada kasus pedesaan di negara-negara berkembang.
... The eco-efficiency of this method has drawn the attention of different studies. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. Solar Heating Systems SHS have two modalities, the gatherer with plaque built with Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) and Polypropylene (PP). ...
Water and energy crises have stimulated the combination of economic and environmental
criteria in decision-making on technological methods that imply water and energy flows, but the analyzes are not always integrated. Due to the identification of economic equivalences or areas of indifference, this study aimed at creating and applying a algorithm capable of combining the analysis of the economics of these systems with the evaluation of their ecoefficiency, in a single index (EEI), hierarchizing them, the main contribution of this study. The ranking were: paired on 1st) Low cost SHS of Vinyl Polychloride and SHS of Polypropylene, with EEI = 51%; 2nd) Solar Heating System (SHS) Conventional, with EEI = 37%; 3th) Solar Heat Pump Systems (SHPS), with EEI = 23% and 4th) Air-Source Heat Pump (ASHP), with EEI = 14%.
... There have been a series of international efforts to address a significant gap in the conventional economist's toolkit-an understanding of the state of the environment and how it impacts the economy and human welfare (Ayres 2008;Dasgupta 2008). While ecological economics and environmental economics emerged half a century ago (Dasgupta and Heal 1979;Georgescu-Roegen 1971;Hartwick 1977;Martínez Alier 1987;Røpke 2004;Solow 1974), the importance of the environment for sustaining life has attracted attention only in the last few decades (Daly 1993;Kates et al. 2001;WCED 1987). National governments too have committed to expanding this knowledge base by commissioning focused studies on climate change (Stern 2007) and biodiversity (Dasgupta 2021). ...
Coastal and marine ecosystems provide a host of services that are of vital importance to human well-being. We estimate the values of several provisioning, regulating, and recreational services using a combination of valuation methods. We find that the total value of these services in India was approximately ₹1.9 trillion (or US$0.11 trillion in purchase price parity [PPP] terms) in 2012–13, which constitutes about 2.4% of India’s net national product that year. Recreational services account for the largest share (45%), followed by regulating services (35%) and provisioning services (20%). These estimates do not include all the services provided by coastal and marine ecosystems; therefore, our estimates should be treated as a conservative underestimate of their total economic value. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such attempt at the national level in India.
... Levando-se em conta que o principal objetivo deste artigo é estabelecer um diálogo integrativo entre a Eco-Eco e a Cepal, está fora do seu escopo entrar em maiores detalhes sobre a EA. Sobre as diferenças teóricas entre a EcoEco e a EA, ver, por exemplo, Christensen (1989); Spash (1999); Bergh (2001); Ropke (2004); Gowdy e Erickson (2005); e Andrade (2008 Com as devidas ponderações -a serem apresentadas neste artigo -esta visão se aproxima da abordagem da EcoEco, pois que coloca as questões ecossistêmicas no centro da análise acerca das características essenciais que um processo de desenvolvimento econômico deve apresentar. Há, portanto, uma convergência primordial entre o pensamento da CEPAL e da EcoEco por volta dos anos 1970/80, qual seja: as limitações biofísicas da Terra e da natureza entrópica do processo econômico, cedo ou tarde provocarão limitações ecossistêmicas tanto à continuidade do ritmo de atividade produtiva quanto à qualidade de vida das populações. ...
... Tuon ajan talousajattelua leimasi oletus luonnonvarojen helposta saatavuudesta, jonka ajateltiin seuraavan niiden tehokkaasta hinnoittelusta. Tällainen lähtökohta ei kuitenkaan huomioi resurssien mahdollista uusitumattomuutta sekä niiden hyödyntämisestä luonnolle koituvia negatiivisia ulkoisvaikutuksia, kuten hiilidioksidipäästöjä, vesistöjen saastumista ja maaperän köyhtymistä (Ropke 2004). Nykytietämyksen valossa onkin käynyt selväksi, että nykyisenkaltainen talousmalli ei kykene suojelemaan kriittisiä luonnonresursseja tarpeeksi tehokkaasti (Pichler ym. ...
Kestävyystutkimuksella on tärkeä rooli matkalla kohti ekohyvinvointivaltiota, jossa kansalaisten hyvinvointi toteutuu ekologisen kestävyyden rajoissa. On tärkeää huomioida, että voidakseen tuottaa tällaisen siirtymän kannalta relevanttia tietoa, kestävyystutkimukselta vaaditaan jatkuvaa uudistumista paitsi metodologisesti myös kiinnostuksen kohteidensa osalta. Kestävyystutkimusta ja ekohyvinvointivaltiota tulisikin kehittää dialogisessa suhteessa ja samanaikaisesti siten, että tutkimuskysymysten asettelu vastaa parasta mahdollista käsitystä hyvän elämän ekologisista, sosiaalisista ja taloudellisista reunaehdoista. Näin tehden, voimme ymmärtää riittävällä tavalla niitä yhteiskunnallisia muutoksia, joita siirtymä kohti ekohyvinvointivaltiota edellyttää. Tässä katsauksessa perehdyn sellaisiin kestävyystutkimuksen teemoihin, jotka tässä hetkessä näyttäisivät vaativan erityisen paljon huomiota ekohyvinvointivaltion kehittämisen kannalta. Tarkasteltavat teemat ovat talous, hyvinvointi sekä siirtymän hallinta, joita lähestyn paitsi tutkimuksellisina ja yhteiskunnallisina haasteina myös niihin sisältyvien mahdollisuuksien kautta. Tarkastelun johdattamana tuon esiin aikaperspektiivien merkityksen matkalla kohti ekohyvinvointivaltiota: voidaksemme saavuttaa hyvinvoinnille kestävän perustan, meidän on kyettävä samanaikaisesti tekemään nopeita muutoksia sekä pitkän aikavälin harkintaan perustuvia sitoumuksia ja hankaliakin valintoja niin yksilöinä kuin yhteiskuntanakin. Joissakin tapauksissa nämä toimenpiteet voivat vaikuttaa jopa keskenään ristiriitaisilta.
... Most bioeconomy literature overlooks the bioeconomics paradigm, despite its anteriority and pivotal role in heterodox economics (and especially ecological economics: see Costanza, Stern, Fisher, He, & Ma, 2004;Melgar-Melgar & Hall, 2020;Røpke, 2004). Hence, a sense of usurpation has coloured the recent writings of the heirs of bioeconomics (Giampietro, 2019;Vivien et al., 2019). ...
The case for solving the environmental crisis through a bioeconomic transition is gaining momentum. However, aims and content of such a transition remain unclear, as this could target an economic sector, the analysis of economic activities, or society as a whole, especially in its relationship to the biosphere. This last possible object of transition – society – is where values, models and goals come into conflict. This study examines this controversy through the lens of the ‘bioeconomics vs bioeconomy’ debate, in which proponents of bioeconomics have raised an arsenal of critiques against what they consider the simplistic promises of public and private promoters of the bioeconomy. We discuss these critiques, which are mainly macro in scale and/or narrative-centred, and argue for a complementary research effort that supports transition initiatives. This research could take place on three fronts: better understanding bioeconomic systems, evaluating bioeconomic transitions, and identifying how to implement these transitions.
... Moreover, economic activities form the interface where society and ecosystems meet and overlap. The field of ecological economics research (its actual foundation reaching back to the 1980s) has been influenced by the work of systems ecologists and heterodox economists (Gómez-Baggethun et al., 2010;Røpke, 2004). To refine their intellectual and methodological foundations, ecological economics drew on ideas and concepts within economics (e.g. ...
In this interdisciplinary thesis, I aimed to understand how the dynamic interplay of social and ecological resources and societal processes underpin socioeconomic activities. For that, I combined the concept of nature’s contribution to people (NCP) with the development-based capability approach. I applied this conceptual framing in the cooperative Beaufort cheese production system of the Maurienne valley, in the Northern French Alps. I suggest considering the Beaufort production system as a territorial capability structured by the complex interactions between ecosystems and society, and within society. This societal dynamics combines local biophysical constraints, unique social-ecological capital and universal production factors towards an outcome that contributes to multiple aspects of quality of life and its long-term persistence. The results of this thesis support a stronger role of social sciences in interdisciplinary research on social-ecological system to fully account for their complexity.
... The legend that Herodotus ascribes to the Greeks also echoes with it: "Driving the Geryon's bulls, Hercules arrived in the deserted land at the time that is now inhabited by Scythians (Herodotus, IV, 8) (highlighted by us -Y.K.). Both stories present migration as the appearance of the ancestor of the people in a desert country (Røpke, 2004;Dibner & Richards, 2005). "There is another story of this content that I trust the most. ...
This article is devoted to the insight of the migration process in the diachronic aspect on the example of Scythians history. This choice is caused by the fact that the information about the Scythians, their arrival in Eastern Europe and movements in the ancient Oecumene, is one of the main problems of Scythian archaeology. A significant range of sources contains information about the arrival of the Scythians and their movements in Europe. These sources include both the works of historians of Antiquity and Modern Times, as well as the works of modern archaeologists. The change of ideas about the Scythians migration is reviewed in accordance with the concept of the information technology shifts, which was put forward by Russian scientists Y.L. Shchapova and S.N. Grinchenko, specifically: information technology of articulate speech and language, information technology of writing, information technology of book printing, information technology of computers, information technology of networks. As result, conclusions were drawn from oral traditions about the vision changes on the causes of migration, about the arrival of a mythological hero – first ancestor at an unpopulated land, wars and tribal confrontation in the era of information technology of speech and language and information technology of writing.
... Originally stemming from the French word décroissance, it has been used as an interpretative frame for a second wave of radical growth critique that gained momentum in the early twenty-first century. It strongly builds on the foundations of the first wave, which can be traced back to the late 1960s when ecological economics emerged as a heterodox critique of environmental economics (Røpke 2004) and Donella Meadows and colleagues (1972) published The Limits to Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome's Project on the Predicament of Mankind. This first wave of radical growth critique clearly acknowledged that there cannot be infinite economic growth on a finite planet. ...
This paper addresses the question of how to organize care in degrowth societies that call for social and ecological sustainability, as well as gender and environmental justice, without prioritizing one over the other. By building on degrowth scholarship, feminist economics, the commons, and decolonial feminisms, we rebut the strategy of shifting yet more unpaid care work to the monetized economy, thereby reinforcing the separation structure in economics. A feminist degrowth imaginary implies destabilizing prevalent dichotomies and overcoming the (inherent hierarchization in the) boundary between the monetized economy and the invisibilized economy of socio-ecological provisioning. The paper proposes an incremental, emancipatory decommodification and a commonization of care in a sphere beyond the public/private divide, namely the sphere of communitarian and transformative caring commons, as they persist at the margins of capitalism and are (re-)created by social movements around the world.
This chapter attempts to construct a new theoretical framework of sustainable natural resource governance by critically examining the existing theoretical positions. The chapter has focused on two theoretical approaches—(a) the market-centric approach and (b) the political economy approach. The new framework takes into account variables such as institution, power, political settlement and human sociality to find out the drivers of natural resource degradation and also to devise a sustainable governance mechanism to ensure a sustained relationship between human beings and nature. The aim, on the whole, is to provide a rigorous cause-and-effect understanding by building on, and moving beyond, the existing theories to address the objectives of the book.
This chapter endeavours to develop an alternative explanation to the causality of climate change in the backdrop of the existing policy regimes, stemming from orthodox theoretical underpinnings. First, it reveals that there is inequality in the sharing of burden of climate change between developed and developing countries. For instance, Bangladesh, despite playing a negligible role in greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions, faces severe vulnerabilities resulting from climate change. In this regard, cases of food security, natural disaster and forced displacement have been analysed rigorously as these are major areas of vulnerabilities experienced by Bangladesh. Secondly, the chapter focuses on the issue of cooperation among different countries across the world to reveal that attempts of cooperation have failed due to institutional mismatches among different organisations, authorities and countries. Furthermore, it demonstrates the adverse outcomes of institutional fragility at the national level in Bangladesh that multiplies the country’s vulnerability in the face of climate change. Finally, it develops an alternative understanding of sustainability—a concept interrelated with climate change in particular and natural resource governance in general.
Product-Service Systems (PSS) are widely recognised as promising models for increasing circularity and sustainability in business, but the extent to which they contribute to sustainability is still debated. While growing and insightful, the literature on PSS sustainability fails to cover all the relevant aspects and to take stock of the ways PSS can be conceptualised as contributing to strong sustainability. We contend that if PSS are to be designed to be strongly sustainable, clear guidance is needed based on both clear normative premises and sound empirical knowledge. Based on systematic and non-systematic literature reviews on the drivers of PSS (un)sustainability and a long-course field work on the development of PSS in Brussels (Belgium), the paper identifies important sustainability challenges that PSS frequently face and that PSS initiatives should address. These challenges are articulated with insights from the sustainable business models literature and anchored in a strong sustainability pre-analytical stance. An original analytical framework based on 5 dimensions (access, substitution, systemic dematerialisation, territorial anchoring and sufficiency) and 15 criteria of Strongly Sustainable Product-Service System (SSPSS) is proposed.
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In this study, we explore sustainable business model (SBM) research through the lens of doughnut economics (DE). By conducting an integrative literature review, we analyse concepts that reflect the seven principles of DE at the business model level. We identify 23 SBM concepts and develop a framework that draws on cognitive science theory to distinguish between seven abstract and 16 concrete concepts. The contribution of our study is threefold: First, the framework enhances the theoretical understanding of SBM concepts that mirror DE. Second, our study presents seven unique avenues for shifting the SBM research agenda. Third, the findings have the potential to inspire SBM innovation in practice.
This paper discusses the relevance of information overload for explaining environmental degradation, insofar it can reduce individuals' awareness of the unsustainable side-effects of their choices. This “myopia” is reinforced by the increased distance from nature in everyday life brought about by the abundance of exosomatic energy. The departure point of the paper is to show that two outstanding intellectuals, engaged in very different fields, have set forth very similar reflections on the effects of information overload, namely the film director Wim Wenders and the social scientist, really a polymath, Herbert Simon, whose relevance to ecological economics has been recognised. The presentation of their ideas is then complemented by a presentation of the state of the art on information overload, which allows moving to our core argument about environmental degradation.
The modern economic paradigm is based on a business networking system developed through the capabilities and features of information technology. The prominent weakness of a supply/value chain is reflected in the networking system of manufacturing firms. Ecology facilitates the networking processes of businesses, especially business ecosystems. It also introduces the cooperation and competition of manufacturing companies in addition to co-creation with customers and other partners within the framework of ecological values. The interactions of organizational ecosystems result in ecological values for extracting ideas and demands from clients and other members of the network. Therefore, different views can be stored, categorized, and analyzed. Instead of eliminating rivals, corporations replace mere competition with cooperation and competition (coopetition); thus, the customer will be regarded as a resource for creating collaborative ideas and products instead of the means to make a further profit. Although the benefits of ICT are evident, the dark web issues and violations of user privacy require comprehensive and international decisions and standards formulated by political authorities.
CRISPR is currently viewed as the central tool for future gene therapy. Yet, many prominent scientists and bioethicists have expressed ethical concerns around CRISPR gene therapy. This paper provides a critical review of concerns about CRISPR gene therapy as expressed in the mainstream academic literature, paired with replies also generally found in that literature. The expressed concerns can be categorised into three types depending on whether they stress risk/benefit ratio, autonomy and informed consent, or concerns related to various aspects of justice. In the reviewed literature, we found no intrinsic objections to CRISPR gene therapy, even though many such objections were present in discussions of gene editing in the 1990s. The paper then proposes a brief outline for a practically applicable moral framework for public decision-making about CRISPR gene therapy and suggests how such a framework might be supported. We also suggest that this framework should govern public engagement about CRISPR gene therapy in order to reduce the risk that we make decisions about CRISPR gene therapy based on misperceptions, inflated views of risk, or unreasonable moral or religious views.
When deep recessions hit, some governments spend to rescue and recover their economies. Key economic objectives of such countercyclical spending include protecting and creating jobs while reinvigorating economic growth—but governments can also use this spending to achieve long-term social and environmental goals. During the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, claims have been made that green recovery investments can meet both economic and environmental objectives. Here, we investigate the evidence behind these claims. We create a bespoke supervised machine learning algorithm to identify a comprehensive literature set. We analyze this literature using both structured qualitative assessment and machine learning models. We find evidence that green investments can indeed create more jobs and deliver higher fiscal multipliers than non-green investments. For policymakers, we suggest strong prioritization of green spending in recovery. For researchers, we highlight many research gaps and unalignment of research patterns with spending patterns.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Volume 47 is October 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
This paper analyzes the influence of ecological economics (EE) in the European Union (EU) political agenda, specifically the agenda-setting dynamics of the cap-and-trade (CAT) EE policy concept. We follow the model developed by Boezeman, Leroy, Maas, and Kruitwagen (2010), elaborating on the important factors for the rise of CAT in the EU political agenda, and on the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) implementation issues.
Although EE features are present in the EU political agenda, particularly in periods when international works and forums raised environmental awareness globally, its impact has been moderate and intermittent. Since the 80s, neoclassical economics views tend to dominate EU policy, furthering a “win-win” discourse between economic growth and environmental sustainability. More recently, climate change has rekindled EE concerns without shifting the prevailing paradigm.
We conclude that EE did not influence significantly the rise of the CAT policy in the EU political agenda. Instead, this resulted from a combination of the political context around the Kyoto Protocol, the agency of EU actors and the CAT flexible framing among multiple stakeholders. Also, the EU ETS operationalization shows that political obstacles hindered the policy's success, suggesting that EE would benefit from further integrating in its theory political economy aspects.
L’analisi costi-benefici è la più antica tecnica di valutazione economica della spesa pubblica, affondando le sue radici storiche agli inizi del XVIII secolo, quando un ecclesiastico francese, l’abate di Saint-Pierre, effettuò una rudimentale stima dei risultati economici dei miglioramenti nella viabilità comparando i benefici incrementali (in termini di riduzione dei costi di trasporto ed incremento del commercio) con i costi addizionali di investimento e di gestione del sistema viario francese.
Da allora, l’analisi costi-benefici ha registrato una continua evoluzione, ampliando il suo
contenuto fino ad ancorare gli elementi del computo alla matrice teorica dell’economia del benessere, una particolare branca della teoria economica che, sviluppatasi a partire dal seminale contributo di Pigou del 1920, si è consolidata nel ventennio tra gli anni ’30 e ’50. A questa evoluzione dal lato teorico ha seguito la crescente applicazione della tecnica valutativa nei processi decisionali, soprattutto dei Paesi industrializzati, abbracciando settori sempre più numerosi dell’intervento pubblico nel sistema economico. L’obiettivo di questo saggio è duplice. Da una parte, la ricerca intende ripercorrere l’evoluzione teorica registrata dall’analisi costi-benefici nel corso del tempo, alla quale non rimase estraneo il contributo fornito dalla Scuola italiana di scienza delle finanze; dall’altra, essa mira a illustrare gli aspetti principali dell’applicazione della tecnica valutativa nel processo allocativo della pubblica amministrazione italiana. In questa direzione, l’esame puntuale dei meccanismi allocativi all’interno dei quali l’analisi costi-benefici venne introdotta permetterà di meglio comprendere la specificità dell’esperienza maturata nel nostro Paese e, quindi, di mettere in luce gli elementi che hanno favorito ovvero ostacolato il suo concreto utilizzo nel processo di formulazione delle decisioni pubbliche.
Il saggio, in Appendice, illustra alcuni temi correlati agli aspetti teorici e applicativi dell’analisi costi-benefici.
The way in which any topic is analysed in economics depends on methodological approach. The purpose here is to explore the argument that the way in which climate change is addressed depends on how economics is understood to relate to the physical environment and also to the social and ethical environment. This involves an exploration of the formation of knowledge, both in economics and in the economy. Alfred Marshall’s evolutionary approach to knowledge formation was central to his approach to economics and to his understanding of economic behaviour. Here, we consider the application of Marshall’s approach to issues around climate change, through the lens of the subsequent development of evolutionary economics and ecological economics.
Ecological economics has existed as a field for over 30 years. The field has since its inception strived to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries and incorporates many substantially different perspectives. Despite continuous discussion about the fundamentals and direction of the field, ecological economists maintain a perception that ecological economics is at its core one field, although there are various approaches within it. The present study draws on the concept of disciplinary discourse to explore the field's perceived strengths and the values pursued through its research. I carried out interviews with editors and editorial board members of the journal Ecological Economics in order to investigate how actors in a central location expressed this discourse. Respondents hold that the field's strengths are its theoretical robustness, breadth, and open and dynamic nature. They also hold that the field should pursue the scientific values of consistency, societal relevance, and novelty. However, the operationalization of these values in the institutional and intellectual environment of ecological economics is underscoring tensions within the field, including the question of whether to enforce strict exclusionary boundaries against mainstream economic approaches.
"Maximum Power" is a synthesis of the creative genius of Howard Thomas Odum as seen through his own words and those of his students, many of whom are now applying his ideas to the world in diverse ways. Offering the holistic, system-oriented thinking of Odum, this in-depth volume examines the interrelationship of humans and n"ature by integrating environment, energy, and economics. "Maximum Power traces the development of Odum's ideas with the objective of providing the conceptual and research history that has led to Odum's far-reaching ideas about making social decisions. The volume is organised along the chronological path that Odum himself followed, from ecology to ecological engineering to ecological economics to his controversial synthesis called 'emergy analysis'.
In this article, we inquire into the intellectual history of the application of the biological concept of metabolism to social systems - not as a metaphor, but as a material and energetic process within the economy and society, vis-àvis various natural systems.The paper reviews several scientific traditions that may contribute to such a view, including biology and ecology, social theory, cultural anthropology, and social geography. It assembles widely scattered approaches dating from the 1860s onward and shows how they prepare the ground for the pioneers of "industrial metabolism" in the late 1960s. In connection to varying political perspectives, metabolism gradually takes shape as a powerful interdisciplinary concept. It will take another 25 years before this approach becomes one of the most important paradigms for the empirical analysis of the society-nature-interaction across various disciplines. This later period will be the subject of part II of this literature review.
Part I (1860-1970)
In this essay, we inquire into the intellectual history of the application of the biological concept metabolism to social systems - not as a metaphor, but as a material and energetic process within economy and society, vis-a-vis various natural systems.The paper reviews several scientific traditions that may contribute to such a view, such as biology and ecology, social theory, cultural anthropology and social geography. It assembles the widely scattered approaches from the 1860s onwards and shows how they prepare the ground for the pioneers of „industrial metabolism“ in the late 1960s. In connection to varying political perspectives, metabolism gradually takes shape as a powerful interdisciplinary concept. It will take another twenty-five years before this approach turns into one of the most important paradigms for the empirical analysis of society-nature-interaction, across various disciplines. This later period will be the subject of a second part of this literature review.
A series of hypotheses is presented about the relation of national energy use to national economic activity (both time series
and cross-sectional) which offer a different perspective from standard economics for the assessment of historical and current
economic events. The analysis incorporates nearly 100 years of time series data and 3 years of cross-sectional data on 87
sectors of the United States economy. Gross national product, labor productivity, and price levels are all correlated closely
with various aspects of energy use, and these correlations are improved when corrections are made for energy quality. A large
portion of the apparent increase in U.S. energy efficiency has been due to our ability to expand the relative use of high-quality
fuels such as petroleum and electricity, and also to relative shifts in fuel use between sectors of the economy. The concept
of energy return on investment is introduced as a major driving force in our economy, and data are provided which show a marked
decline in energy return on investment for all our principal fuels in recent decades. Future economic growth will depend largely
on the net energy yield of alternative fuel sources, and some standard economic models may need to be modified to account
for the biophysical constraints on human economic activity.
Biophysical economics is characterized by a wide range of analysis from diverse fields who use basic ecological and thermodynamic principles to analyze the economic process. The history of biophysical thought is traced from the 18th-century Physiocrats to current empirical research, with emphasis on those individuals who contributed to the development of biophysical economic theory. Attention is also given to a critique of the neoclassical theory of natural resources from a biophysical perspective, and how recent empirical biophysical research highlights areas of neoclassical theory which could be improved by a more relatistic and systematic treatment of natural resources.
Observations of island fauna and flora have long been important in ecology and have given rise to theoretical speculation. Theories originally developed for islands have proven to have a much wider applicability (MacArthur Wilson, 1963, 1967). Island biogeography research has also generated insights into the nature of man — environment relationships (Rappaport, 1963). A study of the Fiji Islands elucidated the vulnerability of ecosystems to natural disasters as well as to stresses imposed by man (Brookfield, 1981). Recently the importance of indigenous and imported energy sources to the economic future of an isolated region was studied in the island state of Hawaii (Shupe, 1982). It seems that several advantages can be gained by selecting islands to collect necessary empirical information and to generate new insights into problems related to regional planning.
In this classic study, the authors assess the importance of technological change and resource substitution in support of their conclusion that resource scarcity did not increase in the Unites States during the period 1870 to 1957. Originally published in 1963.
Preface Notation guide 1. Introduction Part I. The Physical Economy-Environment System: 2. Closed physical systems: a model 3. Structure and time in the physical system 4. Technological change and the environmental constraints to physical growth Part II. The Economic System: 5. The price system 6. Prices, property, and the environment 7. Economic conflict and environmental change Part III. Environmental Strategies in an Evolutionary Economy-Environment System: 8. Time, uncertainty, and external effects 9. The market solution 10. The stationary state 11. Conclusions References Index.
THIS REVIEW EXPLORES BOTH ECOLOGICAL THEORY AND THE BEHAVIOR OF NATURAL SYSTEMS TO SEE IF DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES OF THEIR BEHAVIOR CAN YIELD DIFFERENT INSIGHTS THAT ARE USEFUL FOR BOTH THEORY AND PRACTICE. THE RESILIENCE AND STABILITY VIEWPOINTS OF THE BEHAVIOR OF ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS CAN YIELD VERY DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO THE MANAGEMENT OF RESOURCES. THE STABILITY VIEW EMPHASIZES THE EQUILIBRIUM, THE MAINTENANCE OF A PREDICTABLE WORLD, AND THE HARVESTING OF NATURE'S EXCESS PRODUCTION WITH AS LITTLE FLUCTUATION AS POSSIBLE. THE RESILIENCE VIEW EMPHASIZES DOMAINS OF ATTRACTION AND THE NEED FOR PERSISTENCE. BUT EXTINCTION IS NOT PURELY A RANDOM EVENT: IT RESULTS FROM THE INTERACTION OF RANDOM EVENTS WITH THOSE DETERMINISTIC FORCES THAT DEFINE THE SHAPE, SIZE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DOMAIN OF ATTRACTION. THE VERY APPROACH, THEREFORE, THAT ASSURES A STABLE MAXIMUM SUSTAINED YIELD OF A RENEWABLE RESOURCE, MIGHT SO CHANGE THESE CONDITIONS THAT THE RESILIENCE IS LOST OR IS REDUCED SO THAT A CHANCE AND RARE EVENT THAT PREVIOUSLY COULD BE ABSORBED CAN TRIGGER A SUDDEN DRAMATIC CHANGE AND LOSS OF STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY OF THE SYSTEM. A MANAGEMENT APPROACH BASED ON RESILIENCE, ON THE OTHER HAND, WOULD EMPHASIZE THE NEED TO KEEP OPTIONS OPEN, THE NEED TO VIEW EVENTS IN A REGIONAL RATHER THAN A LOCAL CONTEXT, AND THE NEED TO EMPHASIZE HETEROGENEITY. THE RESILIENCE FRAMEWORK DOES NOT REQUIRE A PRECISE CAPACITY TO PREDICT THE FUTURE BUT ONLY A QUALITATIVE CAPACITY TO DEVISE SYSTEMS THAT CAN ABSORB AND ACCOMMODATE FUTURE EVENTS IN WHATEVER UNEXPECTED FORM THEY MAY TAKE.
In a rapidly changing and inter-disciplinary world it is important to understand the nature and generation of knowledge, and its social organization. Increasing attention is paid in the social sciences and management studies to the constitution and claims of different theories, perspectives,and 'paradigms'. This book is one of the most respected and robust analyses of these issues. For this new paperback edition Richard Whitley - a leading figure in European business education - has written a new introduction which addresses the particular epistemological issues presented by management and business studies. He approaches the sciences as differently organized systems for theproduction and validation of knowledge - systems which become established in particular contexts and which generate different sorts of knowledge. He identifies seven major types of scientific field and discusses the establishment and growth of these sciences, including the major consequences of thenineteenth-century expansion of employment opportunities for researchers; the competitive pursuit of public reputations; and the domination of intellectual work by employees. He also examines the divergences in the way research is organized and controlled both in different fields, and in the samefield within different historical circumstances. This book will be of interest to all graduate students concerned with the social study of knowledge, science, technology, and the history and philosophy of science.
Abstract From modest beginnings in the 1960s, environmental economics has grown to be a major subdiscipline of economics. It combines traditional work in the field of welfare economics and the theory of economic growth with more recent perspectives on the political economy of choosing policy instruments and the philosophy of sustainable development. The central tenets are that environmental problems have their roots in the failure of economic systems to maximize human well-being, that environmental quality matters for human well-being and for more traditionally oriented economic growth objectives, and that efficient policy can be achieved through incentive design.
Starting from a physiological analogy with the nutrition of living bodies, classical theorists from Hobbes to Senior and J.S. Mill developed a nascent materials-flow analysis of production which recognized an underlying physical interdependence in economic activities. Neoclassical theory, by contrast, took its tools and methods from analytical mechanics. It not only ignored material and energy flows from and to the environment, its basic physical assumptions (marginal productivity) are inconsistent with the principles governing material and energy transformations. The development of an ecological economics requires a radical reformulation of economic theory. This paper suggests that a synthesis of the classical production model with the insights of an ecological and systems approach offers an important direction for the future integration of a physical, informational and organizational approach to economic activity.