Walter Alfredo Salas-Zapata

Social-ecological resilience and the quest for sustainability as object of science

The term ‘sustainability science’ has been employed to refer to a scientific trend, movement or program aimed at studying problems related to human–nature interactions. However, since it does not have its own set of principles for knowledge building and lack of a definition of a study object, sustainability science is not a science, at least in the usual sense of the word. A study object is the conceptual delimitation of the problems tackled by a science, and therefore, its search in the context of a science of sustainability requires exploring different notions of sustainability. This article presents different perspectives on the concept of sustainability and analyzes the viability to assume them as study object of sustainability science. Such exploration demands concepts based on a processual ontology that directs the researcher toward the dynamic, historic and temporal and social-ecological character of problems of unsustainability. The concept of social-ecological resilience seems to comply with such requirements.

Methodological characteristics of sustainability science: a systematic review

Sustainability science has emerged as a research program and a scientific trend that directs all efforts to promote transition of societies toward sustainability. The style of research proposed to tackle unsustainability issues should be characterized by the application of a systems approach, as well as transdisciplinarity, participation, generation of social learning and a problem-solving perspective. However, whether such traits are being actually implemented has not been determined. Furthermore, a mature science is expected to have coherent research typologies, besides a scientific community and shared theoretical assumptions and methodological prescriptions; such types or research on sustainability science is still unknown. This systematic review aimed at analyzing research papers on sustainability carried out in 2013. Three aspects were studied: the scientific community, the theoretical assumptions on the concept of sustainability and the methodological design. Results suggest that the scientific community comes from disciplines different to sustainability, the researchers tend not to define the concept of sustainability and among those who do, and there is a lack of shared assumptions. The present analysis also showed that research on sustainability has not implemented the methodological characteristics mentioned and coherent method typologies were not found. These aspects hinder sustainability science evolution and maturity, given the difficulty to construct theories and consolidate a scientific community that develops coherent methods on such grounds.

Ciencia de la sostenibilidad, sus características metodológicas y alcances en procesos de toma de decisiones

The transition toward sustainability is the set of changes and decisions a group of people make in order to resolve problems of sustainability. To address these problems a scientific trend has emerged called sustainability science, which has been considered to be a science inspired by the use of knowledge and must have characteristics such as transdisciplinarity, participation, social learning, coproduction of knowledge, as well as consider multiple perspectives and scales of problems and the uncertainty inherent to them. However, scientific research plays a particularly important role in the decision making processes. The chances of success greatly increase when permits interaction and communication between researchers and decision makers, or other actor. This paper analyzes how the characteristics in question contribute to the promotion of changes toward sustainability.

Contributions of sustainability science to the study of environmental health problems

From the ontological point of view, environmental health problems do not differ from problems of unsustainability. This leads us to think that sustainability science could contribute to resolve important questions that studies on environmental health are not resolving. A literature review was made in order to analyse the scope and limitations of studies on environmental health problems. Based on the characteristics of environmental health studies, we highlighted some examples of questions that are being ignored and analysed four contributions that sustainability science could make to solve them. These contributions come from three key components of sustainability science: (1) the unit of analysis—social–ecological systems, (2) a theory—resilience theory and, specifically, social–ecological resilience, (3) and the approaches of complex systems and transdisciplinarity. From a sustainability science perspective, four contributions could be made: environmental health problems are redefined as social–ecological systems; environmental health is assumed to be the result of adaptation processes; the environment and society are recognized as systems, not as matrices of factors; and human action acquires content and structure and, in turn, explains the behaviour of environmental health problems.

Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Sustainability: Systematic Review 1990–2016

Abstract For any transition towards sustainability to be successful, it is necessary to understand the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) – related to sustainability – in different populations. A systematic review was conducted to identify and analyse KAP studies on sustainability that were reported in the scientific literature during the period of 1990–2016. Ten studies were found, of which half were conducted among populations in educational environments, i.e., teachers, students and graduates. The KAP results vary among the studies; however, there is a general tendency to investigate aspects related to ecosystems, natural resources, environmental protection and conservation. The present study concludes that it is necessary to conduct KAP studies that include categories that reflect on the wide range of meanings of sustainability and the attitudes and practices that would arise from such perspectives. This finding also reveals dimensions of sustainability usually omitted by KAP studies of sustainability.