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IN THE NAME OF SUSTAINABILITY
Author(s) -
Conca Ken
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
peace and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1468-0130
pISSN - 0149-0508
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0130.1994.tb00602.x
Subject(s) - sustainability , theme (computing) , sociology , order (exchange) , meaning (existential) , hierarchy , environmental security , value (mathematics) , environmental ethics , sustainable development , power (physics) , epistemology , political science , ecology , law , economics , computer science , biology , philosophy , physics , finance , quantum mechanics , machine learning , operating system
Environmental problem have emerged as a major analytic theme in peace studies. Peace scholars are increasingly inclined to apply and extend concepts such as sustainable development, global change, and ecological security. Not all paths to ecological sustainability are equally peaceful or just, however; environmental discourse often masks widely varying assumptions about order, hierarchy, justice, conflict, and other fundamental concerns. As peace studies struggles to fashion an environmental agenda, peace researchers must uncover and examine the embedded social meaning of prevailing environmental discourse. As a first step toward doing so, this article considers the concepts of global change and ecological security . These concepts are examined on two levels: as sets of metaphors, which shape how one conceives of problems and solutions, and as social practices, which posit some relationship with existing power structures and institutions and which value some interests and concerns at the expense of others. Although both concepts present appealing definitions, they rest on a series of metaphorical and institutional associations that many peace scholars will find questionable and problematic.