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Theme 1: Environmental Sustainability

Studies of sustainability, with a focus on environmental analyses. Articles publish into The International Journal of Environmental Sustainability.

  • The science and technology of environmental sustainability
  • Ecosystemics
  • Sustainable agriculture
  • Urbanization and its consequences
  • Ecological footprints and ecospaces
  • Atmosphere and biosphere: global warming, the ozone layer, pollution
  • Energy: renewable and not
  • Water: sources and uses
  • Land and sea, mountain and savannah, desert and wet zones, forests and coasts: variable impacts on varied environments
  • Biological diversity: its past and prospects
  • Biotechnology and its critics
  • Danger signs: rising sea levels, desertification, soil degradation

Keywords: Sustainability, Ecosystems, Science, Technology, Energy, Water, Land, Sea, Biological Diversity.

Theme 2: Sustainability in Economic, Social and Cultural Context

Studies of sustainability, with a focus on socio-cultural and economic analyses. Articles publish into The International Journal of Sustainability in Economic, Social and Cultural Context.

  • One, two, three, four, how many ‘bottom lines’?
  • The meaning of cultural sustainability and sustainable heritage development
  • Belonging and identity: their environmental, economic and social significance
  • Changing patterns and cultures of consumption
  • Cosmopolis: local cultures, globalization, diaspora
  • Women and men, children and the elderly, families and sustainability
  • Cultural dimensions of childbearing and population growth
  • Cultural tourism
  • Indigenous peoples: self-government, self management and cultural autonomy.
  • Indigenous knowledge and traditional practices of sustainability: broadening
  • the scope of valid knowledge
  • The economics of environment, culture and society
  • What is economic value?
  • Cultural, social and environmental capital
  • The economics of sustainability
  • Needs, wants and demand: reconfiguring the economic equation
  • Business cases: the cost and value of sustainability
  • Risks and risk management: where economy meets environment, culture and society
  • Free trade and fair trade
  • Global flows: finance, trade, technology transfer and debt
  • Sustainable aid and aid for sustainability
  • The dynamics of production and consumption
  • Accountability: beyond financial years and bottom lines
  • Measuring performance and reporting sustainability
  • Organizations and corporations: defining the stakeholders and meeting their interests
  • Development, underdevelopment and sustainability
  • Tourism and its impacts
  • Sustainable and unsustainable transportation
  • Wellbeing and quality of life: sources and strategies
  • Gender and sustainability
  • Poverty and its eradication
  • Health in its environmental, cultural, economic and social contexts
  • Population growth and its consequences
  • Wastes and waste management
  • Urbanization and the sustainability of human settlement

Keywords: Sustainability, Culture, Economics, Society.

Theme 3: Sustainability Policy and Practice

Addressing sustainability agendas and the practices flowing from these in government, corporate and community sectors. Articles publish into The International Journal of Sustainability Policy and Practice.

  • The politics of sustainability
  • Global sustainability policies
  • National sustainability policies and initiatives
  • Sustainability in local government
  • Corporate sustainability initiatives
  • Community and NGO sustainability initiatives
  • Measuring impacts: environmental assessment
  • Bioethics
  • Nature as intellectual and physical property
  • Civic pluralism: multiculturalism and cultural sustainability
  • Cultural and political liberalization: challenges and dangers
  • The arts and creativity as a resource for sustainability
  • Structures of ownership: private property, public property and the commons
  • Good citizenship in fragile environments, cultures, economies, societies
  • Levels of governance: interactions of sustainability initiatives at local, regional, national, and international levels
  • Domains of responsibility: NGOs, corporations, persons
  • The sources of sustainable innovation
  • Planning for sustainability
  • Capacity building in theory and practice
  • Sustainability and community participation
  • Managing ‘human resources’

Keywords: Sustainability, Politics, Policy, Practices.

Theme 4: Sustainability Education

On teaching and learning about human relations to the environment, and raising community awareness of sustainability. Articles publish into The International Journal of Sustainability Education.

  • Environmental education in a time of ecosystemic crisis
  • Teaching and learning sustainability: schools, universities, communities
  • The media, public awareness and community education on sustainability
  • Education sustaining language and culture
  • Public knowledge: the role of the media and government
  • Natural and social sciences: taking an holistic view
  • Researching sustainability
  • Knowledge capacities: developing sustainability science and technology locally

Keywords: Sustainability, School Education, Higher Education, Community Education.

Presentations at the conference, as well as the journals and books created in this knowledge community, are grouped around the themes listed here. Submissions are welcomed that cross more than one thematic area. Keywords are only indicative - please add your own keywords as you think necessary. The range of ideas listed in each thematic grouping and associated keywords is continually reviewed and revised by the participants in this knowledge community. Please suggest additions and changes.