ABSTRACT
When the term ‘sustainability’ is used in relation to human societies it is often taken to imply a paradigm shift, requiring societies to consider everything in relation to nature. This ‘transformative’ use of sustainability in social and economic terms compares with an emphasis on ‘stability’, ‘balance’ and ‘conservation’ in the natural sciences. The interest in sustainability is beginning to call into question some of the established modes of disciplinary thinking in the social sciences. Concern with the environment, more generally, has highlighted gaps in the existing disciplinary framework of the social sciences. Environmental economics began the assault by rattling the bars of its disciplinary cage, but this exercise is gradually being taken forward in other disciplines.
