O'Hara, Sabine U. 1995. "Sustainability: Social and Ecological Dimensions." Review of Social Economy LIII(4): 529-551.

Thesis:

"To move toward sustainability, it is imperative to regain a broader understanding of economics," one that is rooted in the social and ecological context of economic activity, by incorporating the concepts of concreteness rather than abstraction, connectedness rather than isolation, and diversity rather than homogeneity (p.529).

Summary:

The author proposes that "recovering a contextual understanding of economics is essential to sustainability" (p.530). Our present economic path is unsustainable because of the fact that our economic understanding is decontextualized from the real constraints and processes of the social and ecological worlds. "Sustainability challenges us to recover the links between social and ecological contexts" (p.530).

O'Hara provides a history of the development of economics, and its movement from contextualized, "real" economics that focused on physical inputs and outputs, to a symbolic economics based upon the calculus of money and credit. (pp.531-537). She contends that this shift in the discipline was not value neutral, but it led to the "selective exclusion of contributions not measurable on its terms" i.e. nature's "free goods" and women's "informal" or "household" sector contributions (p.535). O'Hara argues that these contributions "form the very basis for economic productiveness" (ibid.).

The author then draws three main principles from feminist theory to suggest a broader framework within which to discuss issues related to sustainability. To illustrate the effective utilization of these principles, O'Hara employs a report from the Governor's Commission for a Sustainable South Florida. It is a vision written in story form of what the region will look like in 2015, if it is to be sustainable. The principles are concreteness, connectedness and diversity.

Concreteness refers to "being identified by experience, not abstraction" (p.540). Dialogue based on experience, rather than the language of the experts, can be open to the participation of many. Also, concreteness connects the dialogue to the actual physical processes of an ecosystem, and their interaction with the human activity, both social and economic in that region.

Connectedness highlights that "relevant social or ecological contributions do not occur in isolation, but are the product of multiple connections and relationships" (p.542). This concept challenges ideas of "productiveness as determined by individual functions and contributions" (ibid.). Thus 'connectedness' allows the consideration of both (a) the feedback between economic activity and ecosystem stuctures and (b) the feedback between economic activity and social structures (p.543).

Diversity, according to O'Hara, "is the mark of sustainability" (p.544). She argues that diversity in cultural and socioeconomic systems are as crucial to sustainability as biodiversity, which "begets stability, and the ability to cope with crises" (ibid.).

O'Hara holds that the features of a sustainable economy are ecologically and culturally determined within a given social, cultural, and ecological context. A sustainable economics must acknowledge the "neglected connections between social and ecological sustaining functions...and the existing valuation biases" (p.547). The three principles are offered as useful tools in this reconceptualizing process.

Keywords: valuation, ecological sustainability, social sustainability, concreteness, connectedness, diversity, feminist theory