Sustainability Theory and Conceptual Considerations: A Review of Key Ideas for Sustainability, and the Rural Context
Lisa M. Butler Harrington Department of Geography Kansas State University 118 Seaton Hall 920 N. 17th Street Manhattan, KS 66506-2904
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Harrington, L. M. B. Sustainability theory and conceptual considerations: a review of key ideas for sustainability, and the rural context. Papers in Applied Geography. 2(4): 365-382. (doi 10.1080/23754931.2016.1239222) See final published article
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Sustainability Theory and Conceptual Considerations: A Review of Key Ideas for Sustainability, and the Rural Context
Abstract ‘Sustainability’ and ‘sustainable development’ have become important concepts and goals across science and society. Sustainability, connected to desirable long-term conditions, is an inherently applied pursuit in geography and other fields. An integrative statement of essential concepts upon which sustainability studies and applications are being built has been lacking, however. Based on the literature, a number of key ideas or theoretical concepts are discussed here, including the importance of choice, place, scale, systems, limits, change, connected concepts, and the identity of ‘sustainability.’ The rural context is used to present examples illustrating key ideas for sustainability, but the concepts apply broadly to applications and research related to improving the directions of environmental and social changes within local, regional, and global systems under the influence of human actions. Key words: sustainability; rural geography; global change; social-ecological systems (SES)
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1. Introduction Sustainability, including sustainable development (WCED 1987; NRC 1999), has become a core concern from global to regional and local scales, with numerous attempts to apply the concept to a variety of places and concerns. As noted by Bettencourt and Kaur (2011), the “concept of sustainable development…now pervades the agendas of governments and corporations as well as the mission of educational and research programs worldwide.” The intertwined concepts of sustainability and development are linked to concerns about the health of social-ecological systems and the increasingly evident human dimensions of global change (Vitousek et al. 1997; MA 2005; Kareiva et al. 2007; Steffen, Crutzen, and McNeill 2007; Steffen et al. 2015a, 2015b). With rising concerns about the capacity of Earth systems and human technologies to maintain ecosystem services and provide for human needs, sustainability science emerged at the beginning of the 21st century, with attention to both basic and applied research (Kates et al. 2001; Clark 2007; Elsevier and SciDev.net 2015). Sustainability may be defined as the capacity to maintain or improve the state and availability of desirable materials or conditions over the long term. This definition retains the commonly cited characteristics of sustainability and sustainable development as oriented toward the long term, and the basic identification of sustaining any particular conditions or materials as keeping or maintaining them. The definition offered here also may be applied to particular interests, as well as to any spatial scale. Other descriptions, such as “[m]eeting fundamental human needs while preserving the life-support systems of planet Earth” (Kates et al. 2001, 641) tend to accentuate the global scale. Pursuit of sustainability or sustainable development implies that the goal is to maintain or improve beneficial conditions (to sustain them), particularly with improved capacity to extend desirable conditions over the long term.
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It is clear that ‘sustainability’ emphasizes maintaining the desirable aspects of natural and/or social conditions and, when possible, improving such conditions, including the status of natural resources. Note that “sustainability” can be considered as a broader concept than sustainable development. ‘Sustainable development’ focuses on human well-being (WCED 1987). ‘Sustainability’ may be focused on an ecosystem or biodiversity status, for example − with or without explicit attention to human well-being − or may be focused on a specific aspect of a human system such as educational equity, or even the financial health of an individual farm (see, e.g., Palmer, Cooper, and van der Vorst 1997; Waas et al. 2011). In sum, the pursuit of sustainability is oriented toward long-term treatment of natural resources, social systems, and people in ways that are consistent with human well-being and dynamic system stability.1 While Bettencourt and Kaur (2011) have discussed the structure and evolution of sustainability science, the literature on sustainability generally lacks an articulated compilation or synthesis of overarching principles useful to both applied and basic efforts related to sustainability and sustainable development.2 The main portion of this paper identifies key ideas or theoretical concepts to help guide actions meant to support greater sustainability. This is supplemented by examples drawn from situations in rural environments.
2. Purpose My purpose here is to present important conceptual points or key ideas that can serve as the theoretical framework for practical sustainability applications. These key ideas should be particularly useful for planning for and making decisions related to the pursuit of sustainability, as well as guiding further research. The key ideas synthesized here are essential concepts about how social-ecological systems work and the conditions that affect sustainability; they are derived
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from foundational literature focused on sustainability and related concepts, and frequently overlap. Such organizing ideas are identified as theoretical constructs in social science. Recommended guiding principles include the interlinked concepts shown in Table 1, described explicitly and implicitly below.
Table 1. Key ideas: Important considerations linked to application of the sustainability concept. Related works Choices Matter. It is not possible to sustain everything, everywhere, forever. Transitions and pathways toward sustainability are key; we will not be able to identify arrival at “sustainability.” Because systems are dynamic, sustainability is a moving target; there is no endpoint for efforts to reach or maintain it. For any identified place or region, and for any identified material or condition, there will be different states of lesser or greater sustainability. Gradual changes and sudden threshold-related shifts are both possible.
NRC 1999; Leathers and Harrington 2000; Kates, Travis, and Wilbanks 2012
Sustainability is a normative concept. The idea of sustainability is inextricably connected to what we see as desirable. What is desired varies with reference frame: people have different desires, and judge possible futures in different ways depending on the situation, including temporal outlook and spatial location. Research provides improved understandings relevant to normative decisions.
NRC 1999, Kates et al. 2001, Parris and Kates 2003
Sustainability is a fuzzy concept. Sustainability is defined differently by different communities and interest groups. Because the term is applied to many different desires, meaning is not always clear. Perceptions matter to judgments and management relevant to sustainability Utilitarian and human values tend to be focal concerns, but sole attention to narrow definitions could cause irredeemable losses. 5
More 1996; Palmer, Cooper, and van der Vorst 1997; Ducey and Larson 1999; Cawley, de S.M. Bicalho, and Laurens 2013
Scale matters, in both space and time. What is sustainability at one scale may not be so over a smaller or larger area; to become ‘sustainable,’ cities will most likely need connections to supporting rural areas that are sustainable. Conditions change over time, and trends affect progress with respect to sustainability goals, from local to global scales.
Wilbanks 1994, 2006; NRC 1999; Wilbanks and Kates 1999; Kates, Parris, and Leiserowitz 2005
Place matters. Places (at whatever scale) differ; at the most basic, the physical environmental characteristics available for sustaining also differ. Cultures differ from place to place and can greatly influence societal efforts to move forward along a path toward sustainability.
Wilbanks 1994, 2006, Wilbanks and Kates 1999, Bergstrom 2009, Bergstrom and Harrington 2013
Systems thinking is an organizing concept. Systems of concern for sustainability and sustainable development efforts are both connected and embedded Dependence between systems is variable in time and space. Both proximate and ultimate drivers of conditions and change are of importance. Limits exist. The Earth is finite, and although humans have the capacity to modify conditions and resource production, there are physical limits to how far various aspects of the system can be pushed. Feedbacks affect system resilience and nearness to thresholds. Renewable resources should be removed and used at no more than the rate of renewal. Sustainability is interconnected with other essential concepts. • Practitioners should be aware of resilience, adaptive capacity, and vulnerability.
Change is an essential consideration and challenge for sustainability. • Environmental (climatic and oceanic systems, land use and land cover), economic, and social/cultural changes are factors in sustainability. • Change at one location/scale can propagate through systems at different scales. • Unanticipated change constitutes what is known as ‘surprise’ and requires adaptive approaches to management. 6
Nelson 2005, Carpenter et al. 2006, Liu et al. 2007, Reid et al. 2010, Bettencourt and Kaur 2011, Costanza et al. 2013
Rockström et al. 2009a, 2009b; Mace et al. 2014; Steffen et al. 2015a, 2015b Gunderson and Holling 2002, Turner et al. 2003Walker et al. 2004, Adger 2006, Eakin and Luers 2006, Walker and Salt 2006, O’Brien et al. 2012
Turner et al. 1990a, 1990b; NRC 1999; Kates et al. 2001; Walker and Salt 2006
The ordering of concepts is not based on any suggested differences in relative importance; rather the order of description is based on clarity and ease of connections among the identified principles. Some of the ideas expressed here are often implicitly recognized, but not always explicitly acknowledged. Making such concepts explicit can help with follow-through, although the broad ideas are simply stated in this compilation. The concepts/key ideas presented here are broadly applicable across environments, from urban to the breadth of rural and wildland areas. However, with the secondary purpose of giving attention to rural sustainability issues in this paper, the more developed rural world serves as the focus for examples relevant to theoretical concepts presented here.3 Rural environs in the developed world have seen extensive modifications during the “great acceleration” in humancaused changes to the environment during the last century (Steffen, Crutzen, and McNeill 2007; Steffen et al. 2015a, 2015b). Examples used to illustrate rural conditions and guiding concepts or key ideas for sustainability have been selected based on clarity of connections to the key ideas, as well as the existence of related literature. The Rural sustainability and resiliency have garnered increased attention among scholars (e.g., Marsden 2003; Essex et al. 2005; Robinson 2008; Wilson 2010; McManus et al. 2012). Woods (2012) identified three of five key challenges for rural research in the 21st century as “sustainable use of resources,” “resilience of rural communities to environmental uncertainties,” and “rural economic development based on the sustainable use and management of environmental resources.”
3. The Rural Context for Sustainability As noted by Grimm et al. (2008, 756), 7
The unprecedented rates of urban population growth over the past century have occurred on
