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Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1007/s11625-016-0407-z
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Title (Primary) Between Scylla and Charybdis? On the place of economic methods in sustainability science
Author Strunz, S.; Klauer, B.; Ring, I.; Schiller, J.
Source Titel Sustainability Science
Year 2017
Department OEKON
Volume 12
Issue 3
Page From 421
Page To 432
Language englisch
Keywords Economic methods; Methodological pluralism; Power of judgment; Ontology; Sustainability
UFZ wide themes RU6
Abstract The flaws of mainstream economic methodology are becoming widely acknowledged. Should we, therefore, reject all of its concepts within the quest for sustainability? A predicament looms: neither would it make sense to neglect useful tools, nor to redundantly replicate the mainstream’s narrow perspective on sustainability problems. We argue that avoiding both fallacies is possible because power of judgment facilitates non-dogmatic methodological decisions: the scientists’ judgment, that is, the capacity to apply general concepts to specific situations, supports their decisions concerning which methods are suitable for tackling a given sustainability problem. The intersubjective quality of judgment prevents the resulting methodological pluralism from drifting toward arbitrariness.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=18000
Strunz, S., Klauer, B., Ring, I., Schiller, J. (2017):
Between Scylla and Charybdis? On the place of economic methods in sustainability science
Sustain. Sci. 12 (3), 421 - 432 10.1007/s11625-016-0407-z