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Sustainability indicators: the problem of integration
Author(s) -
Morse Stephen,
McNamara Nora,
Acholo Moses,
Okwoli Benjamin
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
sustainable development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.115
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1099-1719
pISSN - 0968-0802
DOI - 10.1002/sd.148
Subject(s) - sustainability , sustainable development , product (mathematics) , value (mathematics) , perspective (graphical) , element (criminal law) , subjectivity , management science , process management , accountability , computer science , environmental economics , environmental resource management , business , economics , political science , mathematics , epistemology , ecology , artificial intelligence , law , philosophy , geometry , machine learning , biology
Abstract Sustainability indicators (SIs) are increasingly seen as important tools in the implementation of sustainable development. Numerous suggested SI lists and matrices exist, but a remaining problem is how these diverse SIs are to be integrated into an answer as to whether something is sustainable or not. In some studies of sustainability workers have adopted a quantitative integration approach whereby SIs are given numerical values and integrated mathematically to produce a value for sustainability. In this paper the authors discuss SI integration by drawing upon the results of a six‐year research project based in a village in Nigeria. They conclude that an element of'qualitative integration' incorporating value judgements and subjectivity is inevitable with a concept such as sustainability, even if one begins with what may seem like sharp and quantitative SIs. It is argued that SIs are primarily a product of development intervention rather than a desire to understand, and as a result carry with them the desired characteristics, from the donor perspective, of efficiency and accountability. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment