Working PaperFirst publicationPublished version DOI: 10.48548/pubdata-1955

What is sustainability economics?

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Chronological data

Date of first publication2009-09
Date of publication in PubData 2025-07-30

Language of the resource

English

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Part of ISSN: 1860-5508
Working Paper Series in Economics

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Abstract

While economists have been contributing to the discussion of various aspects of sustainability for decades, it is just recently that the term “sustainability economics” was used explicitly in the ecological, environmental, and resource economics community. Yet, the contributions that use the term “sustainability economics” do not refer to any explicit definition of the term, and are not obviously joined by common or unifying characteristics, such as subject focus, methodology, or institutional background. The question thus arises: What is “sustainability economics”? In this essay, we make an attempt at systematically defining and delineating what “sustainability economics” could be in terms of its normative foundation, aims, subject matter, ontology, epistemology, and genuine research agenda.

Keywords

Economic; Human-Nature-Relationship; Sustainability

Number of the series contribution

138

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DDC

330 :: Wirtschaft

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Research