Sustainability as a Norm

该项目将批判性地分析可持续发展概念如何在三种背景下作为一种规范发挥作用：在学科范围内，作为一种社会目标，以及在制定农业和发展政策方面。该项目是一个涉及哲学家、土壤学家和人类学家的多学科合作项目。农学和考古学的学科定位将为可持续性研究提供截然不同的科学方法。研究这两个学科在处理可持续发展概念的方法方面如何比较和对比，将为理解可持续发展如何在学科背景下作为一种规范发挥作用提供基础。首席调查员将回顾过去十年发生的事件，审查可持续性如何在国内和国际上成为一种政治规范。这三位合作者将共同制定一项战略，以整合和构建一种兼顾科学和政治规范的可持续性方法，并将伦理目标作为弥合在可持续性方面出现的学科分歧的一种方式。他们将比较可持续发展作为研究政策决策规范的不同解释，并分析这些规范如何受到学科解释的影响，以及研究政策规范可能实现的社会目标。项目成果将通过书籍、文章和在专业协会和相关会议上的陈述来传播。

This project will critically analyze how the concept of sustainability functions as a norm in three settings: within disciplines, as a social goal, and in setting agricultural and development policy. The project is a multidisciplinary effort involving a philosopher, a soil scientist, and an anthropologist. The disciplinary orientations of agronomy and archeology will provide contrasting scientific approaches to the study of sustainability. Examining how these two disciplines compare and contrast in their approaches to the concept of sustainability will provide a basis for understanding how sustainability functions as a norm in disciplinary contexts. The principal investigator will review events of the past decade to examine how sustainability has emerged as a political norm nationally and internationally. The three collaborators will work together to develop a strategy for integrating and constructing an approach to sustainability that takes cognizance of both scientific and political norms, and which uses ethical goals as a way of bridging disciplinary divisions that emerge with respect to sustainability. They will compare alternative interpretations of sustainability as a norm for research policy decision making, and analyze how these norms are influenced by disciplinary interpretations and what social goals the research policy norms are likely to achieve. Project results will be disseminated through books, articles, and presentations at professional associations and relevant meetings.