SUSTAINABILITY FRAMEWORKS IN SOCIOLOGY: IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS

by

Emma Porio, PhD

Professor of Sociology and Chairperson, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, Ateneo de Manila University. Presented at the research cluster on Environment, Society and Sustainability seminar, Jan. 18, 4:30pm, LH Conference Room, Ateneo de Manila University. Please send comments to:eporio@ateneo.edu

Introduction and Key Messages

Introduction to the Research Cluster Activity Cluster description, goals, activities Sustainability Frameworks in Sociology Sustainability Research: 1) Theory of Practices examining its assumptions, patterns and consequences 2) Identifying transformative possibilities or sustainable anchors for these practices

Sustainability Frameworks: A Precis

Sustainability Frameworks in Sociology Environmental Sociology Sociology of Development/dev sociology Concepts/theories of sustainable development World System Theory Neo-Marxist treadmill of production theory Modern systems theory, All address development issues eventually sustainability questions. Approach: Very global; the least national

Data Bases/References Sustainable development thinking and practices: beginning a major societal paradigm shift transforming social, economic, and cultural conditions Sociology and the social sciences shld play critical roles in documenting this potential revolution: a) monitoring and collecting data; b) analyzing, explaining, identifying the patterns of social articulations c) providing assessments of social impacts and related developments

Sustainability Frameworks: In Search of Evidence and Methodological Issues Global Goals vs. National-Local Practices Search for Cases and Evidence Heavily Macro; Need for more Meso and Micro Levels of Analysis Breaking down to researchable issues and questions Appropriate mobilization of concepts and methodologies in given contexts to contribute to knowledge building

Research-Publication Spaces/Opportunities
Illustration: WSSC 2013-14 Call for Papers and research questions focusing on

Consequences of climate change and environmental change Conditions and visions for change: Interpretation and subjective sense making Responsibilities & Ethics Governmentality and decision making Changing research practices and new ways of working in the social sciences

Illustrative Cases: Research-Publication Spaces/Opportunities

Interrogating Sustainability Indicators: Guidelines and Methodologies (2007) Driving force-state-response frameworks Issue- or theme-based frameworks Capital frameworks Accounting frameworks Aggregated indicators Other indicator approaches

*Sustainability hinges on local practices not on global goals!

Illustrative Cases: Research-Publication Spaces/Opportunities

*Sustainability politics vs. our knowledge production In the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Brazil): how to define sustainable development? the balance between environmental sustainability & human development; the kinds of goals and targets that might be adopted; how to relate these goals to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). *Sustainability hinges on local practices not on global goals!

Illustrative Cases: Research-Publication Spaces/Opportunities

Interrogating Sustainability Indicators: Guidelines and Methodologies (2007) Documenting local patterns, articulations and revising the understanding/hierarchy of indicators, variable components or relationships giving rise to new knowledge

*Sustainability hinges on local practices /interrogations not on global goals!

Illustrative Cases: Research-Publication Spaces/Opportunities

Interrogating Sustainability Indicators: Guidelines and Methodologies (2007) Illustrative Concept(s): sustainability prism sustainability practices; ecological economics and trans-disciplinarity Research/publication in the Northvis--vis interrogations/theorizing in the South (expanding the evidence base in social science knowledge productions) *Sustainability hinges on local practices /interrogations, not on global goals!

Illustrative Cases: Research-Publication Spaces/Opportunities

*Sustainability politics: politics of development *Sustainability hinges on local practices not on global goals! Example: production of income poverty, food security and extreme inequality vs. national elite strategies and state (national-local) governance strategies

Methodologies for Sustainability Research

Transdisciplinarity Sustainable development North-South; East-West Participatory Research; Reflexive Methodologies Systems Analysis/Holistic but Very Disciplined Three interlinked dimensions: direction, diversity and distribution

Day After Typhoon Milenyo: Children Looking at playgound in Navotas

Bangkulasi, Navotas City: After Typhoon Milenyo

..

Child crossing makeshift bridge to buy food across waterway in swampy Ibayo Tipas, Taguig City, West Mangahan Flood Basin

Concluding Comments: Building/Producing Knowledge

Sustainability theory as a theory of practices The sustainability prism economy, environment, equity (quality of life)
)

the appropriate balance of the three factors

articulates the practice of sustainability as well as the writing and publishing about it

Research-Publication Spaces & Opportunities: Concluding Comments

Sustainability

hinges on local practices and interrogations not on institutional-global goals!

Concluding Comments: Knowledge Building (KP) and Our Scholarship Theory-averse environment (legacy of ML); Locating ourselves within the larger, global universe of KP/scholarship; Developing the reflexivity in ourselves as scholars of the global south (Interrogating the concepts and theories produced in the North); A consciousness of building our intellectual identities and location within the epistemic communities Sustainability theory as a theory of practice(s)
)

Maraming salamat po!!!

Thank you very much!