What about then strong versus weak sustainability, with the lower case as you suggest. Weak sustainability argues that what counts is the overall value of the bequest package. Agricultural economics, swiss federal institute of technology. Concepts and measurement abstract in this paper, we explain how the latest international handbook on environmental accounting, the system of integrated environmental and economic accounting or seea united nations et al. Strong sustainability is defined in terms of constant environmental quality. The idea of weak sustainability is illegitimate springerlink. Strong sustainability the alternative to weak sustainability is strong sustainability. Read reconciling weak and strong sustainability, international journal of social economics on deepdyve, the largest online rental service for scholarly research with thousands of academic publications available at your fingertips. A conceptual and analytical approach is presented to reconcile weak and strong sustainability. The challenge for both weak and strong sustainability approaches is defining the indicators and measuring capital stock.
This is the focus of the debate between weak and strong sustainability, and how intergenerational equity is to be achieved. It involves a reconsideration of the conception of total capital from an ecological. However, prior arguments led to a softening of the strong sustainability approach, as they allowed substitutability of noncritical natural capital. Strong sustainability is defended by daly 1995 and criticized by beckerman 1994, 1995, who rejects the concept of sustainability in general. Weak sustainability versus strong sustainability sustainable. Sustainable development sd is a path that ensures the wellbeing of the present and future generations. Weak and strong sustainability assessment in fisheries. On the ethical implications of weak and strong sustainability. I put forward a concrete proposal on how human development and its measurement in the form of the human development index hdi can be linked with measures of both weak and strong sustainability. Weak and strong sustainability are the two main interpretations of sustainability, which. Sustainability science for strong sustainability biogov.
This article does not include measures of sustainability, such as green and sustainable national income. Coverweak and strong sustainability lse research online. The concept of strong sustainability is based on the scientific fact that all human life and activity occurs within the limitations of planet earth, or the biosphere where humankind lives, including all societal functions, such as the economy. The second interpretation, known as strong sustainability, sees sustainability as nondiminishing life opportunities see page 1983 or daly and cobb 1989, p. Weak sustainability cannot be reconciled with accepted knowledge. Mar 11, 2015 the fundamental debate regarding sustainable development is whether we choose to adopt a strong or a weak conception of sustainability. Finally, the integration of damage cost modules into a broader methodological framework of strong sustainability is recommended. Weak sustainability allows for the depletion or degradation of natural resources, so long as such depletion is offset by increases in the stocks of other forms of capital for example, by investing royalties from depleting mineral reserves in factories. Weak and strong sustainability, conservation and growth 3 about weak and strong sustainability in the models of solow and daly and extensions thereof, and to examine whether the different positions that have been taken by advocates of the different paradigms can be justified on an analytical ground. Weak sustainability versus strong sustainability jerome pelenc, fund for scientific research frsfnrs and free university of brussels ulb, belgium jerome ballet, university of bordeaux, gretha research unit, france tom dedeurwaerdere, fund for scientific research frsfnrs and catholic university of louvain ucl, belgium.
Economic growth under weak and strong sustainability scenarios. Identifying the weak sustainability concept as illegitimate and accepting this fact, allows to end the discussion between weak and strong sustainability and to pursue the latter one. Oct 31, 2016 thus, the interpretation of weak sustainability is a contradiction in itself and thus should be abandoned. Or possibly weak and strong sustainability, which might be more mellifluous. Pdf innovation policy is increasingly informed from the perspective of a national innovation system nis. Reconciling weak and strong sustainability emerald insight.
Reconciling weak and strong sustainability reconciling weak and strong sustainability werner hediger 19990701 00. Thus weak and strong sustainability each have a role to play in impact assessment. Appraising weak and strong sustainability columbias academic. This paper outlines that the weak sustainability term is illegitimate, as it leads to a. Weak sustainability postulates the full substitutability of natural capital whereas the strong conception demonstrates that this substitutability should be severely seriously limited due to the existence of.
Mar 25, 2016 franckdominique vivien shows that the sustainable development is a controversial subject for the economists since the seventies, and that this debate is centered around two notions. Strong sustainability approach has an advantage compared to the weak sustainability. Searching for a middle ground george randal davies university of reading, berkshire, united kingdom email. Weak sustainability is the idea that natural capital can be used up as long as it is converted into manufactured capital of equal value. Here we discuss how the choice of mathematical form can impact a sis relationships with weak, absurdly strong, and strong sustainability. Weak sustainability versus strong sustainability jerome pelenc, fund for scientific research frsfnrs and free university of brussels ulb, belgium jerome ballet, university of bordeaux, gretha research unit, france. Reconciling ecosystem services with neoclassical economics. Finally, section 6 con tains the concluding remarks. There are two main concepts in the study of sd, namely weak sustainability ws and strong sustainability ss. Frontiers weak and strong sustainability of irrigation. The alternative to weak sustainability is strong sustainability. Dec 12, 2011 as a counter to weak sustainability, strong sustainability advocates argue, we need a more smallscale decentralized way of life based upon greater selfreliance, so as to create a social and economic system less destructive towards nature. Weak and strong sustainability are often regarded as opposing paradigms. Reconciling weak and strong sustainability international journal.
Regretfully, both scientists and political agents use the. In 2010, the academic advisory committee for the office of sustainability. In particular, natural capital is classified into non. Oecd glossary of statistical terms weak sustainability. The problem with weak sustainability is that, while we can assign a monetary value to manufactured goods and capital, it can be very difficult. The problems of weak sustainability and associated indicators. This is the choice between weak sustainability 2 and strong sustainability hereafter ws and ss respectively. Weak versus strong sustainability exploring the limits of two opposing paradigms, third edition eric neumayer, professor of environment and development, department of geography and environment and associate, grantham research institute on climate change and the environment, london school of economics and political science, uk. I believe our usual titling pattern would be strong and weak sustainability. Ualbertas sustainability plan sustainability at the university of alberta the definition of sustainability is broad, and the world is a big, diverse places. This is in fact closer to weak sustainability than to strong sustainability. Sustainability free fulltext institutionalizing strong. People tend to define sustainability in the ways that suit their particular applications, goals, priorities, and vested interests, and often.
Weak and strong sustainability, environmental conservation. Sep 11, 2011 weak versus strong sustainability posted on september 11, 2011 by ctittle the dominant worldview among western and developed nations is that of the growth paradigm. In reconciling weak and strong sustainability by hediger 1999, a new model is developed that tries to include ecosystem resilience and basic human needs. Section 4 stresses some of the assumptions behind the concept of weak sustainability and section 5 questions the usefulness of the weak sustainability index as a tool for assessing sustainability. Weak sustainability compared to strong sustainability.
It is also important to note that strong sustainability does not share the notion of interchangeability. The revenue from exhaustible resources is divided into two parts, one of which can be freely spent in consumption provided that the other part is invested into new sustainable sources of energy that will completely substitute for the depleted resources. Reconciling sustainability, systems theory and discounting. The system of integrated environmental and economic accounting seea is capable of generating a significant volume of environmental and economic data, with which we can derive measures of ws and ss. This paper seeks to address the issue of weak and strong sustainability as well. Reconciling weak and strong sustainability, international journal of social. Endogenous growth theory and its consequences for sustainability is treated in section 8. Fnrs report prepared in the context of the public tender on a scientific report on the organisation of. Reconciling sustainability, systems theory and discounting alexey voinova. Reconciling weak and strong sustainability, international.
This integration results in a new unified model of stages of corporate sustainability that broadens the current narrowly constricted understanding of corporate sustainability, extends the paradigm of corporate sustainability beyond the business case and into the realm of ecological science and strong sustainability, and sheds light on the paradox. For sustainability to remain a relevant, useful tool, it is important that it adapt to the local context. With specific reference to irrigation, it is possible to aim for strong sustainability because water is overall a renewable resource. Concepts and measurement simon dietz, eric neumayer. Reconciling weak and strong sustainability emerald. Pdf the idea of weak sustainability is illegitimate researchgate. Pdf reconciling sustainability, systems theory and.
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