Page 6 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

Preface

Since the publication of the Brundtland Report in 1987 at the latest, there have been
intensive discussions about the vision of ‘sustainability’ together with the related
concept of ‘sustainable development’ in many different areas of society as well as
in the scientific community. The degree of knowledge in the general population
however is not very profound. At the same time it is argued that the concept of sus-
tainable development can only be realised if there is broad support for its implemen-
tation in the general public. In order for this to happen it is necessary for much
larger segments of society to become interested in this process and to become
involved in this process. The pathway to the sustainable development of our society
will only be taken when it becomes clear why the concept of sustainable develop-
ment is a strategy for the survival of the human race.
Against this background there has been a growing awareness in recent years of
the necessity of sustainability communication. This discipline has set itself the goal
not only of providing a clear and persuasive understanding of sustainable develop-
ment and of campaigning for its acceptance, but above all of involving people in the
process of sustainable development and motivating them to actively take part in it.
The scientific discourse accompanying this development is concerned with a num-
ber of different fields in sustainability communication and attempts to provide a
theoretical foundation as well as a conceptual orientation for a communicatively
based process shaping sustainable development.
This Handbook is meant as a contribution to that process, strengthening the theo-
retical grounding of sustainability communication and by using selected examples
from such issues in sustainability as climate change or biodiversity showing which
role sustainability communication can play in these fields. This involves learning to
identify different levels and fields of sustainability communication but also in learn-
ing to recognise its limits. Sustainability communication cannot replace the deci-
sions taken in politics and by individuals about possible courses of action, but it can
accompany and support these processes. The Handbook should be seen as a com-
pendium showing the spectrum of sustainability communication in all of its many
facets, without however claiming to offer a complete review.

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