Page 30 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

Chapter 2
Strong Sustainability as a Frame

for Sustainability Communication

Konrad Ott, Barbara Muraca, and Christian Baatz

Abstract The term sustainability has enjoyed great success, but at the cost of
overextending its meaning to the point of trivialization. There is such an overabun-
dance of definitions, concepts, models and political strategies that it is not clear any-
more whether the terms ‘sustainability’ and ‘sustainable development’ still bear any
meaning. The theory outlined in this chapter counters these tendencies by identifying
more precisely the normative field that constitutes the very core of the sustainability
concept, while avoiding a too narrow understanding. It points out the ethical presup-
positions as well as the requirements for a theoretical framework of a consistent and
discursively justified concept of sustainability. This rectifies the vagueness of the
term as currently used and offers new possibilities for sustainability communication.

Keywords Strong sustainability • Weak sustainability • Ethics • Philosophy
• Natural capital

Understanding Sustainability

The complex idea of sustainability is the outcome of different intertwined threads
running across history, societal movements, scientific research and political policy-
making. After the Rio Summit, which contributed to establishing worldwide a dis-
course and communication framework for sustainable development, the term
sustainability has often been used as a catchphrase without specific meaning. Some
scholars consider the well-known definition of the Brundtland Report a bad

K. Ott (*)
Environmental Ethics, Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald, Domstraße 11,
17487 Greifswald, Germany
e-mail: ott@uni-greifswald.de
B. Muraca • C. Baatz
University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

J. Godemann and G. Michelsen (eds.), Sustainability Communication: Interdisciplinary 13
Perspectives and Theoretical Foundations, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-1697-1_2,
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011