Page 22 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

1 Sustainability Communication – An Introduction 5

of justice, a modest life, freedom and self-determination, participation, human
well-being and responsibility for the future. Sustainability has been repeatedly
held up as an important goal by governments, businesses, non-governmental
organisations (NGO) and also at national and international conferences, playing
a role in a variety of different interest groupings. Although the term is accom-
panied by imprecision, ambiguity and at times contradictions, there is a generally
accepted understanding of what sustainable development means. The best for-
mulation can be found in the report ‘Our Common Future’, also known as the
Brundtland Report. “Sustainable development is development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs” (WCED 1987: 43).
Sustainable development then is an ethically motivated normative concept refer-
ring to a form of economics and lifestyle that does not endanger our future. Such an
ethical approach to shaping the future must ultimately be based on an understanding
of strong sustainability (Daly 1997; Ott and Döring 2008), which in contrast to the
concept of weak sustainability rejects the premise of unlimited substitutability of all
natural resources with equivalents and considers this as irresponsible to future
generations.
Science and research are thus challenged. So-called sustainability research is a
paradigm shift within science. The focus is on the relationship between humans and
the environment and the structure of research practice can be characterised as an
integrated approach to cooperative problem-solving. Inter- and transdisciplinary
research moves into the foreground, drawing attention to a new mode of knowledge
production as well as a new understanding of science and confronting traditional
scientific practice with a new mode of problem-oriented research that should give
fundamentally different answers to the questions of today’s complex society.
The interests of social, economic and political actors are constitutive elements of the
research process, expanding awareness of the problem and its potential solutions
(Hirsch Hadorn et al. 2008).
Discussions about sustainable development are embedded in patterns of cultural
perception and action (e.g. the issue of justice and equality). Research into mentali-
ties and risk show that for example the perception of environmental phenomena as
environmental problems depends on the cultural context, underlining the impor-
tance of cultural differences and their critical reflection. The vision of sustainability
is also related to concepts of modernisation and development of society that entail a
stronger engagement of individuals. Participation is often seen as a new challenge
for political culture and thus has a close relationship to sustainable development. In
this context communication can be understood as a social process in which common
orientations are interchanged. “The necessity of communication can be found in the
(anthropologic) circumstance that each consciousness is isolated, our neuro-
physiological, cognitive, emotional processes are mutually unobservable and there
is no direct access to the thoughts, attitudes and intentions of the other. It is through
communication that ‘the interior is exteriorised’, that we can inform each other, that
we become social creatures. Communication is thus the principle of societal organi-
sation itself” (Ziemann 2007: 124).