The interplay between society and environment is characterized by a dynamic range of interactions across multiple disciplines at multiple scales. The culmination of these ideals enables one to look at the relationship between society and the environment through the lens of sustainability.
How sustainability is defined, historical lessons about sustainability, and the future of sustainability are the dominant themes that reside over the interplay between society and the environment.
WHAT IS SUSTAINABILITY?
In Jennifer Clapp and Peter Dauvergne’s book, Paths to a Green World, four distinct worldviews are constructed based on relationships between global environmental change and global political economy. Those worldviews consist of market liberals, institutionalists, bioenvironmentalists, and social greens.
The massive variety present in these world views is indicative of the current contentious climate that resides over sustainability. Contesting paths to sustainability exist, and the future of sustainability depends on the ability of society to overcome some of these differences, collaborate, and drive effective change.
Below, a concept map has been generated to connect key concepts and relationships between those four worldviews as well as highlight my own positions.