“What Kind of a Science is Sustainability Science?” An Evidence-Based Reexamination
1
Center for Human–Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
2
School of Natural Resources, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
3
School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
4
School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2018, 10(5), 1478; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051478
Received: 8 April 2018 / Revised: 27 April 2018 / Accepted: 1 May 2018 / Published: 8 May 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Defining and Assessing Landscape and Urban Sustainability: Linking Spatial Patterns, Ecosystems Services, and Human Wellbeing)
Sustainability science (SS), rooted in multiple disciplines, has been developing rapidly during the last two decades and become a well-recognized new field of study. However, the “identity” of SS remains unclear. Therefore, this study was intended to help synthesize the key characteristics of SS by revisiting the question raised by the leading sustainability scientist, Robert Kates (2011): “What kind of a science is sustainability science?” Specifically, we reviewed the literature in SS, and developed a synthesis of definitions and core research questions of SS, using multiple methods including change-point detection, word cloud visualization, and content and thematic analyses. Our study has produced several main findings: (1) the development of SS exhibited an S-shaped growth pattern, with an exponential growth phase through to 2012, and a asymptotic development phase afterwards; (2) ten key elements from the existing definitions of SS were identified, of which understanding “human–environment interactions” and “use-inspired” were most prominent; and (3) sixteen core questions in SS were derived from the literature. We further proposed an eight-theme framework of SS to help understand how the sixteen questions are related to each other. We argue that SS is coming of age, but more integrative and concerted efforts are still needed to further consolidate its identity by developing a coherent and rigorous scientific core.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
sustainability science; sustainable development; definition; core questions; thematic framework; sustainability education; landscape sustainability
▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
- Supplementary File 1:
PDF-Document (PDF, 550 KiB)
MDPI and ACS Style
Fang, X.; Zhou, B.; Tu, X.; Ma, Q.; Wu, J. “What Kind of a Science is Sustainability Science?” An Evidence-Based Reexamination. Sustainability 2018, 10, 1478. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051478
AMA Style
Fang X, Zhou B, Tu X, Ma Q, Wu J. “What Kind of a Science is Sustainability Science?” An Evidence-Based Reexamination. Sustainability. 2018; 10(5):1478. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051478
Chicago/Turabian StyleFang, Xuening, Bingbing Zhou, Xingyue Tu, Qun Ma, and Jianguo Wu. 2018. "“What Kind of a Science is Sustainability Science?” An Evidence-Based Reexamination" Sustainability 10, no. 5: 1478. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051478
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
