Sustainability and location elements of a travelling theory of praxis

Abstract

The text is hinged by mainly four points of interests: 'Is sustainability something out there?', 'Can one make a distinction between ecology and economy?', 'Are the limits one is within of any importance?' and 'Can a system be distinguished from its environment?'. The very way in which these questions are formulated does not require a closed answer. They are rhetorical questions and invite reflection upon one's role or location in the environment. They want to evoke something without expecting a straightforward, onedimensional or specific answer. In fact, they try to twist taken-for-granted suppositions like: 'sustainability is something we can strive for, but maybe never reach', 'ecological and economic interests are entirely different from each other', 'limits are obstacles to surpass', 'systems are separated from their context'. Throughout the idea has been developed that it is possible to perceive sustainability, ecology, limits and the body from a different perspective than a merely conventional one. Instead of considering them as static and only emphasising the end of a process, the concern has shifted here from results to processes, from disconnections to connections. This doctorate has been a learning process of developing a complex system of ideas. It was guided by the link between sustainability and (complex) location. Instead of relying on rhetoric only, the effort has been made to go beyond a language that gives the impression of addressing the issue, but in fact does not reveal an underlying meaning. The theme binding the text is the emphasis on travelling rather than on arriving somewhere very specific. Activity creates a goal, instead of imposing it top downwards. A bottom-up way of thinking about sustainability is suggested, i.e. as a process of becoming rather than as a collection of goals which must be implemented. Becoming combines thinking and acting. In other words, it reflects praxis. The bond between thinking and acting is present throughout the thesis. This is manifested from the beginning when a process methodology based on becoming is detailed ( cf. Chapter II). A becoming methodology refers to texts which can only be created in action, in movement. Hence the emphasis on writing as a vital element during the entire research process. Through writing thoughts are ordered, new ideas generated and a text produced. This reminds us of the developed idea of entrepreneur; the one who is in the midst of, with others, and there where the action is (cf. Chapter VII, Body-in-Contact). A becoming methodology allows space for creativity since not everything is filled in beforehand. Writing also relates to essay which is suggested as a possible way of doing research. ...