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Project Starting point and concept |
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The theoretical and methodological contribution of economics to sustainable development (SD) is inadequate.
This is indicated, for example, by the fact that the concept of sustainable development is still rejected
by many mainstream neoclassical economists. In response, the merger-movement of "Ecological Economics"
consisting of many disparate scientific approaches has formed. This creates a scientific divide which is
undesirable from a research policy point of view. Acknowledging this deficiency, the German Ministry of
Education and Research (BMBF) is considering funding a major research program on
"Sustainability and Economics".
Our project, which is funded by the BMBF, surveys economic approaches to sustainable development in a wide context of related scientific disciplines (general economics, social sciences, natural sciences). We aim to identify pressing research needs and promising lines of economic research that can bridge this gap and help overcome this scientific divide. The project is based on an integrative concept which we have labeled "Sustainability Economics" (SE). The key features of SE are:
b) the development of economic methods and concepts that deal with problems of sustainability, c) a strengthening of policy-orientated economic approaches for sustainability, d) integration of the sustainability concepts of general economics (such as sustainable finance) into the environmental economics SD debate, e) an identification of "bridges" between different economic "schools of thought" (e.g. neoclassical economics, ecological economics, evolutionary economics) by means of studying integration and disintegration processes in general science and exploring venues of interdisciplinary approaches (e.g. consilience). _back to top |
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