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Sustainability as a Concept of the Social Sciences |
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Extensive Project Description
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Documents 3 of test3
I. Project Objectives
The project aims to initiate and then intensify, on an international scale, a fundamentals and problem oriented debate on the concept of sustainability within the various social sciences. In this way, it is intended:
§ firstly, to improve the ability of the social sciences to tune in to current developmental, environmental and economic problem areas.
§ secondly, to step up and expand the exchange of views and interdisciplinary cooperation, both within the social sciences and between the social and natural sciences. One will also examine the extent to which sustainability can provide a unifying conceptual framework for the different social sciences.
§ thirdly, the project should serve to prepare new international research programmes.
Right from start, the project should also contribute towards the building of an international social scientific Sustainability and Social Transformation Network who will dedicate themselves to the issues raised by the concept of sustainability.
II. Statement of the Problem
At present, the social sciences are confronted with a wide range of novel and partly interdependent transformation processes. Among these, the most important ones are likely to be economic globalisation with its social, political and cultural impact, the failure of development strategies in many "Third World" countries, unemployment by "jobless growth" in the OECD world, the transformation of post socialist societies, and last, but not least, environmental change on a global as well as on a regional and local scale that is influenced by, and itself influences, all the other tendencies. The contributions and proposals of the social sciences for the political, social and economic management of these transformation processes fall a long way short of the demands and expectations placed in them.
II.1 The Erosion of the Modernisation Paradigm
Major causes of this state of affairs can be found in the conceptual field as well as in the organisational structures of the sciences. The relative success of the social sciences since 1945 in matters of politics, economics and society was closely linked with the predominance of a single theoretical model and paradigm of social transformation for which the terms "modernisation" and "development" served as key concepts. This theoretical model was closely wedded to the assumed continuity of social development, thus enabling the social sciences to make prognoses for long-term trends as well as empirical statements based on economic and social indicators. In this context, the gross national product, the average per capita income and the economic growth rates were regarded as decisive indicators of development or modernisation. Thus, the social sciences acquired considerable importance as a source of advice on policymaking and the political management of economic and social development, particularly in "Third World" countries.
Since the late 1960s, however, the modernisation theory which was based on a generalisation of the historical model of western industrial societies has been attracting growing criticism from various directions. First of all, the success of development policy in the countries of the "Third World" was very limited and selective; it led, more often than not, to the spread of poverty amongst broad sections of the population, to social disintegration and ecological risks. Secondly, discussion of the "limits of growth" made it clear that the resource intensive path of development pursued by the western industrial societies could neither carry on into the future at the same pace, nor could it necessarily be applied on a global scale. Since the 1970s, it has also become apparent that the fast-moving technological rationalisation of production in the industrial societies does, itself, create critical problems of unemployment which are hitherto unsolved. The connection between economic growth, technological progress and social development began to break down. In the light of these tendencies, the normative foundations of the modernisation paradigm also started to become suspect and somewhat flawed. Complementary to this erosion, the social sciences were confronted with new theoretical and conceptual challenges, such as to deal with the natural environment, with gender relations and inequalities, with cultural differences, with technological risks and, more broadly, with technology in general as a "social construction".
Although, since then, sections of the social sciences have reacted to these changes with various attempts at reorientation, no new conceptual approach capable of dealing with these problems has come about. Attempts at formulating the new problems and questions within the old paradigms ("qualitative growth", "ecological modernisation", "reflexive modernisation", etc.) still remain vague and are scarcely related to one another. A major cause of this situation can be found in the disciplinary divisions, both within the social sciences (for instance between economics and sociology) and between social and natural sciences. In respect of this, the well known thesis of the "two cultures" of "science" and "humanities" has to be extended and to be differentiated: There is a deep gulf not only between natural and social sciences but also between different disciplines within natural and social sciences and even within some disciplines; e.g. in biology between molecular biology and botanic. But in the face of the global ecological crisis, the issue of cooperation and interrelation between social and natural sciences and between the different approaches within them has acquired new status as a focus for scientific endeavours and political consultancy.
II.2 Sustainable Development as a Model for Environmental and Development Policy
During the past decade, starting from the so-called Brundtland report of 1987 and especially since the Rio Conference of 1992, the concept of sustainable development has become an internationally accepted model of environmental and development policy. Though originally rather a political than a scientific concept, sustainable development bears theoretical implications. It contains both a strong theoretical statement and a strong normative conviction. The theory maintains that societal development can no longer be viewed without considering its natural prerequisites; instead it must be inseparably coupled with the reproduction thereof. This has two essential consequences: firstly one needs to question whether growth and development can actually be equated; secondly, the idea of there being only one developmental path, with worldwide validity, is starting to crumble. At the same time, the normative call for justice is being applied beyond today's generations to future generations: societal development should on no account lead to irreversible constraints on the chances of future generations meeting their needs. In this respect, equity in gender relations, too, becomes an ever more important dimension of the sustainability discussion.
In this situation, the aim of the present project is to initiate a process of discussion and reflection amongst social science disciplines on whether sustainability can be formulated as a feasible concept for the social sciences as well as a basis of empirical research and how this could be done. There are four key aspects to be considered:
a) Perspectives of an environmentally sound, socially just and democratic development model, limited neither to economic rationalisation and growth nor to technological modernisation, have to be outlined. Thus, discussions on social development, on political development and democratisation, as well as on global environmental change should be brought together. Of course, the idea of there being only a single path of sustainable development has to be avoided in this discussion.
b) New indicator systems beyond GNP and per capita income should be elaborated for operationalisation, evaluation, testing and comparing of development processes and policies. Existing indicator sets, as the Human Development Index (HDI), Environmental Accounting or the Index of Sustainable Welfare (ISEW), should be reconsidered and connected.
c) The theoretical and methodological implications of the concept of sustainability for the social science disciplines have to be pointed out. Among these implications, one of the most important and crucial seems to be that social science will be forced to deal with what was traditionally out of its consideration: with the natural environment, both as shaped by social and economic activities and as a material precondition for the reproduction of society.
d) The capacity of interdisciplinary cooperation, both within the social sciences and with the natural sciences has to be improved. With regard to this, discussion on sustainability has to be established within the individual social science disciplines as well as between them.
III. Procedure
The project as a science organising process entails
§ the identification of experts
§ the preparation of experts' reports on the state and perspectives of the discussion on sustainability in the various social scientific disciplines;
§ the organisation of a workshop on "Sustainability as Social Science Concept" with around 15 social scientists from various countries and different disciplines taking place in November 1996 in the Federal Republic of Germany.
III.1 Examination of Social Scientific Approaches to Sustainability
During the first stage of the project, theoretical reflections on "sustainability as a concept of the social sciences" were examined in greater depth and the relevant questions for the individual social scientific disciplines were consolidated. This conceptual phase was coupled with evaluation of an international conference ("Development models and conceptions of the world: the 'new affluence model' in the conflict on development") held at the end of 1994 in Berlin, and jointly organised by the Deutsche Stiftung fuer Internationale Entwicklung (DSE German Foundation for International Development), the Club of Rome and ISOE, and with the implementation of a follow-up conference at the University of Valdivia / Chile in October 1995.
III.2 Identification of Experts
Parallel to this, selected "resource persons" were interviewed, with the help of whom a group of potential workshop participants from the various social science disciplines was identified. At the same time, the "snowball cluster process" was employed as a heuristic process for selecting participants.
Out of this group around 15 competent scientists from different social science disciplines and various regions and cultures was chosen to work on the project, according to the following criteria:
§ They are firmly established within the respective discipline and yet with a discriminating stance towards its "mainstream" and with the ability to open disciplinary discussions to questions and approaches from other disciplines.
§ They are in the process of conceptual reorientation in the direction of issues raised by sustainability and sustainable development (in other words, these scientists must not necessarily have been involved in the sustainability debate previously).
§ They have the competence to couple conceptual questions with the creation of a new data basis, new sets of indicators and new ways of modelling.
§ Their theoretical reference framework is accessible not only for other social science disciplines but also for dealing with natural science problems.
III.3 Compilation of Reports
In cooperation with the chosen scientists the topics and questions featured in the experts' reports for the respective disciplines were consolidated and specified. General keynotes for the experts' reports were:
§ the significance of sustainability for the conceptual discussion within the discipline and for the debate between different disciplines;
§ ways of concentrating the current processes of reorientation within the discipline on the subject of sustainability;
§ ways of improving and stepping up the intellectual exchange with other (social or natural science) disciplines;
§ new data and indicators as a basis for the implementation and monitoring of sustainability related policies.
A compilation of the reports was distributed to the participants, including also a short survey on some of the reports' results.
III.4 Organisation of the Workshop
In the course of the last stage of the project, the workshop took place in November 1996 in Frankfurt. Drawing on the findings of the reports, the objectives of the workshop were: firstly, to promote the conceptual, theoretical and methodological discussion within and between the various social science disciplines towards a more profound understanding of actual societal and ecological transformations; secondly, to clarify the concept of sustainability and its meanings for conceptual discussion and empirical research in social sciences; thirdly, to improve and intensify interdisciplinary communication and cooperation between different social (and natural) science disciplines; fourthly, to outline and prepare new international, comparative research projects, especially within the of MOST Programme UNESCO.
As an outcome of the workshop the declaration "Enhancing the Social Scientific Understanding of Sustainability" was set up as a contribution to the post Rio evaluation process. The declaration is directed to the UN General Assembly. It is also addressed to national and international science institutions and science and research policy authorities.
The results of the workshop are assessed by ISOE in a short meeting report. A focus of this paper is also on subsequent activities, especially on a feedback of results amongst the various disciplines, scientific organisations and regions, the pinpointing of possible follow-up projects, along with the setting up of social scientists for "Sustainability and Social Transformation Network" (SSTN).
Project participants
Declaration: "Enhancing Social Scientific Understanding of Sustainability"
List of first signatories of the declaration
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Related UNESCO Themes
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Sustainable Development
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Project Description
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Publication Year
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1996-12-07 9:57 am
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