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Title: | The idea of weak sustainability is illegitimate | Authors: | BIELY, Katharina MAES, Dries VAN PASSEL, Steven |
Issue Date: | 2016 | Source: | Environment, development and sustainability, 20 (1), p. 223-232 | Abstract: | Since the introduction of the sustainability challenge, scientists disagree over the interpretation of the term “sustainability.” Weak and strong sustainability are the two main interpretations of sustainability, which are opposing each other. Some researchers stated that the interpretation of the term depends on the context; others disagree pointing out that it always implies the meaning of continuation. The term “sustainability” can be used as attribute, which adds a certain characteristic to the noun. If something can be attributed as being sustainable, it can also be unsustainable. The sustainability challenge consists of shifting from the current unsustainable towards a sustainable system. This paper outlines that the weak sustainability term is illegitimate, as it leads to a contradiction with the acknowledged assumption that the current state is unsustainable. This contradiction is revealed through an analysis of the occurrence of decoupling in agriculture: Agricultural land use could be decoupled from agricultural production, but only with the trade-off of massive increases in fertilizer, pesticide, energy and water usage. This paper outlines an inherent inconsistency within the ongoing discussion about the interpretation of sustainability. Through identifying the invalidity of the weak sustainability interpretation the focus can be shifted form the discourse to the sustainability challenge itself. | Notes: | Biely, K (reprint author), Hasselt Univ, Fac Business Econ, Ctr Environm Sci, Martelarenlaan 42, B-3500 Hasselt, Belgium. katharina.biely@uhasselt.be | Keywords: | weak sustainability; strong sustainability; decoupling; agriculture | Document URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/1942/22574 | ISSN: | 1387-585X | e-ISSN: | 1573-2975 | DOI: | 10.1007/s10668-016-9878-4 | ISI #: | 000423142700011 | Rights: | This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. | Category: | A1 | Type: | Journal Contribution | Validations: | ecoom 2019 vabb 2018 |
Appears in Collections: | Research publications |
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The idea of weak sustainability is illegitimate.pdf | Published version | 486.46 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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