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Three pillars of sustainability: in search of conceptual origins

Sustainability science, 2019-05, Vol.14 (3), p.681-695

The Author(s) 2018 ;Sustainability Science is a copyright of Springer, (2018). All Rights Reserved. © 2018. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License. ;ISSN: 1862-4065 ;EISSN: 1862-4057 ;DOI: 10.1007/s11625-018-0627-5

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  • Title:
    Three pillars of sustainability: in search of conceptual origins
  • Author: Purvis, Ben ; Mao, Yong ; Robinson, Darren
  • Subjects: Climate Change Management and Policy ; Concepts ; Developing countries ; Earth and Environmental Science ; Economic development ; Economic growth ; Economics ; Environment ; Environmental Economics ; Environmental Management ; Historical account ; Knowledge Management for Sustainability Science ; Landscape Ecology ; LDCs ; Methodology ; Original Article ; Public Health ; Schools ; Sustainability ; Sustainable Development
  • Is Part Of: Sustainability science, 2019-05, Vol.14 (3), p.681-695
  • Description: The three-pillar conception of (social, economic and environmental) sustainability, commonly represented by three intersecting circles with overall sustainability at the centre, has become ubiquitous. With a view of identifying the genesis and theoretical foundations of this conception, this paper reviews and discusses relevant historical sustainability literature. From this we find that there is no single point of origin of this three-pillar conception, but rather a gradual emergence from various critiques in the early academic literature of the economic status quo from both social and ecological perspectives on the one hand, and the quest to reconcile economic growth as a solution to social and ecological problems on the part of the United Nations on the other. The popular three circles diagram appears to have been first presented by Barbier (Environ Conserv 14:101, doi: 10.1017/s0376892900011449, 1987 ), albeit purposed towards developing nations with foci which differ from modern interpretations. The conceptualisation of three pillars seems to predate this, however. Nowhere have we found a theoretically rigorous description of the three pillars. This is thought to be in part due to the nature of the sustainability discourse arising from broadly different schools of thought historically. The absence of such a theoretically solid conception frustrates approaches towards a theoretically rigorous operationalisation of ‘sustainability’.
  • Publisher: Tokyo: Springer Japan
  • Language: English
  • Identifier: ISSN: 1862-4065
    EISSN: 1862-4057
    DOI: 10.1007/s11625-018-0627-5
  • Source: Springer Nature OA/Free Journals
    ProQuest Central
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