Sustainability: A Platform for Debate

Abstract: Sustainability, as a new platform for debating sustainable development, drawing on a range of disciplinary perspectives and knowledges, provides an opportunity to ask some searching questions about this concept. This short paper seeks to remind ourselves of some of the questions we might ask (recognizing that there are also many others). It asks, in particular, about the organisation of work in contemporary societies and the sorts of relations to nature to which this gives rise; the sorts of knowledges which may help us to become more sustainable in our use of natural resources; the most useful modes of knowledge organization, transfer and dissemination for sustainability; and whether ‘sustainability’ is only or primarily about sustaining nature, or whether it must also include trying to create and sustain a certain kind of society.