Sustainable Development

Ethics (Major Analytical Approach)

Moral dimensions — asks what should be done and who deserves moral consideration.

Moral Standing (Ethics)

the concept that determines which entities deserve moral consideration and how they should be treated

Moral Extensionism (Ethics)

Ethical consideration should be extended beyond the traditional boundaries of human-centered morality to include non-human entities. Example: rivers given rights in New Zealand, Ecuador, and India

Anthropocentric approach (Ethics)

An ethical standpoint that views humans as the central factor in considerations of right and wrong action in and toward nature. Example: John Locke - labor theory of property

Biocentric Approach (Ethics)

Ethical standpoint that states that life itself should be centered. Example: PETA

Ecocentric Approach (Ethics)

An ethical standpoint that centers the ecosystem/household. Example: Aldo Leopold and “The Land Ethic”. 

Population (Major Analytical Approach)

Focus on humans as biological agents & problems of scarcity; questions of material limits of environmental systems

Thomas Malthus (Population)

Population grows exponentially, resources arithmetically → famine, scarcity.

IPAT formula (Population)

Impact = Population × Affluence × Technology

Kuznets curve (Population)

an inverted U-shaped curve showing that economic inequality increases during the early stages of economic development and then decreases as a country becomes more developed

Carrying capacity (Population)

The maximum population size of a species that an environment can sustain indefinitely, based on available resources like food, water, and space

Markets (Major Analytical Approach)

Focus on markets, growth, commodification, efficiency, externalities; questions of economic value of environmental goods & services.

Externalities (Market)

Costs not reflected in market price - pollution, deforestation

Market failure (Market)

production or exchange is not efficient 

Market Response Model (Market)

Resource scarcity > price signal > adaptation > supply increases or demand decreases

Bob Costanza (Markets)

He reframed the environment as an economic foundation that sustains all human activity. Placed an economic value on the environment and estimated it to be about $33 trillion. Assign a monetary value to nature’s services to make their importance visible within market systems.

Herman Daly (Markets)

Person who theorized that ecological economics, goes further than env economics.

Environmental Econ (Markets)

Uses market tools to solve environmental problems by internalizing externalities and assigning value to ecosystem services. Example: Costanza

Ecological economy (Markets)

Views the economy as a subsystem of the environment, meaning all economic activity depends on, and is limited by, Earth’s ecological systems. Example: Daly

Cap-and-trade (Markets)

a market system for controlling pollution by putting a limit (cap) on total emissions and allowing companies to buy and sell (trade) permits to emit within that cap

carbon taxes (Markets)

directly puts a price on carbon emissions by charging polluters for every ton of CO₂ they release into the atmosphere

efficiency (Markets)

getting the most benefit from limited resource

Collective action (Institutions)

when a number of people work together to achieve some common objective

Collective action problem (Institutions)

However, individuals often fail to cooperate to achieve some common good

Common-pool resources (Institutions)

a shared natural resource that is difficult to exclude people from using, but each person’s use reduces what’s available for others

Institutions (Major Analytical Approach)

Rules, norms, and collective behaviors governing shared resources.

Tragedy of the Commons (Institutions)

Garrett Hardin assumes everyone will overuse the resources

Elinor Ostrom (Institutions)

Argued that communities can self-organize and succeed with clear rules, boundaries, monitoring, and sanctions.

Open Access Resource (Institutions)

a resource that is non-excludable and often overused due to a lack of management or control

Common Property (Institutions)

any property owned jointly by multiple people or a group, with shared rights to its use and enjoyment. Example: National Parks

Political Economy (Major Analytical Approach)

Power, inequality, and capitalism’s role in shaping environmental outcomes. Draws from Marxist traditions. Example: Wealth of Nations

Government / state property (Institutions)

Resource rights held by a government that can regulate

Ostrom’s Response to Hardin (Institutions)

He identified a real problem, but not an inevitable tragedy by overlooking the distinction between open access and common property and, thus, capacity for local self-organization

Adam Smith (Political Economy)

Society should be governed by “natural law” (Law reflecting natural order or human nature )Advocate for laissez faire trade and policy

Surplus extraction (Political Economy)

Companies keep costs low (cheap labor, cheap nature) to maximize profit.

Capital Accumulation (Political Economy)

The drive for endless growth leads to resource depletion and ecological degradation.

Political Ecology

Hybrid approach combining power and inequality focus of political economy and the ecological dynamics of environmental science

Stonich and Dewalt (Political Economy) 

show that Honduran peasants destroy the land not because they are irrational, but because international economic pressures, national policies, and local inequalities leave them no other choice

Racialized Environments (Environmental (In)Justice)

Focus on the role of structural racism and env injustice in socio-env challenges.

Discourse (Major Analytical Approach)

Focus on meaning, language, and narrative; questions of how environment is conceptualized differently across cultural and historical traditions Example: Cronan

Social construction(ism) (Discourse)

The idea that our understanding of “nature” (or any reality) is shaped by culture, language, history, and social context — not purely by objective facts.

Deconstruction (Discourse)

A critical method that breaks down taken-for-granted ideas (like “wilderness” or “purity”) to show how they were socially built and whose interests they serve. Example: Bill Cronon deconstructs “wilderness” to show it was a cultural invention of white, urban elites — not a universal truth.

Dualism (of nature and society) (Discourse)

A binary divide that separates “nature” (wild, pure, nonhuman) from “society” (human, artificial, civilized).

Environmental discourse (Discourse)

The system of meanings and language we use to talk about the environment — including narratives, concepts, ideologies, and signifying practices.

Relativism (debates about) (Discourse)

A debate about whether constructionism undermines truth or empowers critique.

Bill Cronan (Discourse)

Carries a constructionist view. Argues “wilderness” is a cultural invention, not a timeless reality. By idealizing distant “wild” places, people ignore the environmental issues where they actually live — pollution, urban greenspace, or local ecosystems.