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The science of ecological economics
Author(s) -
Luzadis Valerie A.,
Castello Leandro,
Choi Jaewon,
Greenfield Eric,
Kim Sungkyun,
Munsell John,
Nordman Erik,
Franco Carol,
Olowabi Flavien
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.05161.x
Subject(s) - sustainability , ecological economics , ecological systems theory , scarcity , reflexivity , equity (law) , ecology , valuation (finance) , sociology , transdisciplinarity , economics , social science , political science , finance , law , biology , microeconomics
The Ecological Economics journal is a primary source for inquiry on ecological economics and sustainability. To explore the scholarly pursuit of ecological economics, we conducted a content analysis of 200 randomly sampled research, survey, and methodological articles published in Ecological Economics during the 15‐year period of 1989–2004. Results of the analysis were used to investigate facets of transdisciplinarity within the journal. A robust qualitative approach was used to gather and examine data to identify themes representing substantive content found within the span of sampled journal papers. The extent to which each theme was represented was counted as well as additional data, such as author discipline, year published, etc. Four main categories were revealed: (1) foundations (self‐reflexive themes stemming from direct discussions about ecological economics); (2) human systems, represented by the themes of values, social indicators of well‐being, intergenerational distribution, and equity; (3) biophysical systems, including themes, such as carrying capacity and scarcity, energy, and resource use, relating directly to the biophysical aspects of systems; and (4) policy and management encompassing themes of development, growth, trade, accounting, and valuation, as well as institutional structures and management. The results provide empirical evidence for discussing the future direction of ecological economic efforts.