Alternatives Journal Special Issue: Ecological Economics

Journal of Bioeconomics, 2007

Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2001

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

In recent times, ecologists and economists have drawn attention to the fact ecological and economic systems are jointly determined. Once this is recognized, it seems rather obvious that ecological-economic systems ought to be studied as one system. However, because this recognition has been very recent, a number of important issues in ecological economics remain poorly understood. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss five of these outstanding issues.

1995

1999

This issue marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of Ecological Economics. As we begin our second decade, it is an appropriate time to look back and assess what we have done over the first decade, and to set the course for the next one. Have we met the goals we set for ourselves 10 years ago? If not, what can we do to improve?

2015

Analytical philosophy has had a long but little noted influence on the development of ecological economics. The work of the left Vienna Circle, in particular of Otto Neurath, defended two central claims of ecological economics: first, economics needs to address the various ways in which economic institutions and relations are embedded within the physical world and have ecological preconditions that are a condition of their sustainability; second, reasonable economic and social choices cannot be founded on purely monetary valuations.

Handbook of Ecological Economics, 2015

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2010

The Ecological Economics journal is a primary source for inquiry on ecological economics and sustainability. To explore the scholarly pursuit of ecological economics, we conducted a content analysis of 200 randomly sampled research, survey, and methodological articles published in Ecological Economics during the 15-year period of 1989-2004. Results of the analysis were used to investigate facets of transdisciplinarity within the journal. A robust qualitative approach was used to gather and examine data to identify themes representing substantive content found within the span of sampled journal papers. The extent to which each theme was represented was counted as well as additional data, such as author discipline, year published, etc. Four main categories were revealed: (1) foundations (self-reflexive themes stemming from direct discussions about ecological economics); (2) human systems, represented by the themes of values, social indicators of well-being, intergenerational distribution, and equity; (3) biophysical systems, including themes, such as carrying capacity and scarcity, energy, and resource use, relating directly to the biophysical aspects of systems; and (4) policy and management encompassing themes of development, growth, trade, accounting, and valuation, as well as institutional structures and management. The results provide empirical evidence for discussing the future direction of ecological economic efforts.

1995

This article provides a short overview of the main themes of ecological economics (EE). It is argued that EE provides a platform that fosters multidisciplinary environmental research by bringing together the core contributing disciplines ± economics and ecology. In addition, EE is regarded as a pluralistic approach to environmental research that can be set opposite to, and has indeed developed as a response to, traditional environmental and resource economics. A comparison of the two ®elds is presented to clarify the essential differences between them. In addition, speci®c themes are examined in more detail. These include: sustainable development; the growth debate; international trade; dynamic processes; and behaviour and policy.