Matching scope, purpose and uses of planetary boundaries science
(2019) In Environmental Research Letters 14.- Abstract
- The Planetary Boundaries concept (PBc) has emerged as a key global sustainability
concept in international sustainable development arenas. Initially presented as an agenda for global
sustainability research, it now shows potential for sustainability governance.Weuse the fact that it is
widely cited in scientific literature (>3500 citations) and an extensively studied concept to analyse how
it has been used and developed since its first publication. Design: From the literature that cites the PBc,
we select those articles that have the terms ‘planetary boundaries’ or ‘safe operating space’ in either
title, abstract or keywords.Weassume that this literature substantively engages with and develops the
PBc.... (More) - The Planetary Boundaries concept (PBc) has emerged as a key global sustainability
concept in international sustainable development arenas. Initially presented as an agenda for global
sustainability research, it now shows potential for sustainability governance.Weuse the fact that it is
widely cited in scientific literature (>3500 citations) and an extensively studied concept to analyse how
it has been used and developed since its first publication. Design: From the literature that cites the PBc,
we select those articles that have the terms ‘planetary boundaries’ or ‘safe operating space’ in either
title, abstract or keywords.Weassume that this literature substantively engages with and develops the
PBc. Results:Wefind that6%of the citing literature engages with the concept. Within this fraction of
the literature we distinguish commentaries—that discuss the context and challenges to implementing
the PBc, articles that develop the core biogeophysical concept and articles that apply the concept by
translating to sub-global scales and by adding a human component to it. Applied literature adds to the
concept by explicitly including society through perspectives of impacts, needs, aspirations and
behaviours. Discussion: Literature applying the concept does not yet include the more complex, diverse,
cultural and behavioural facet of humanity that is implied in commentary literature.Wesuggest there
is need for a positive framing of sustainability goals—as a Safe Operating Space rather than
boundaries. Key scientific challenges include distinguishing generalised from context-specific knowledge,
clarifying which processes are generalizable and which are scalable, and explicitly applying
complex systems’ knowledge in the application and development of the PBc.Weenvisage that
opportunities to address these challenges will arise when more human social dimensions are
integrated, as we learn to feed the global sustainability vision with a plurality of bottom-up realisations
of sustainability. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/2f3f269f-1937-4fd4-84e8-14425f8b010f
- author
- Downing, A.S. ; Bhowmik, A. ; Collste, David ; Cornell, Sarah ; Donges, J. ; Fetzer, Ingo ; Häyhä, t. ; Hinton, Jennifer B. LU ; Lade, Steven J. and Mooij, Wolf M.
- publishing date
- 2019
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Environmental Research Letters
- volume
- 14
- article number
- 073005
- publisher
- IOP Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85072024747
- ISSN
- 1748-9326
- DOI
- 10.1088/1748-9326/ab22c9
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 2f3f269f-1937-4fd4-84e8-14425f8b010f
- date added to LUP
- 2023-08-22 14:30:39
- date last changed
- 2023-08-25 19:07:35
@article{2f3f269f-1937-4fd4-84e8-14425f8b010f,
abstract = {{The Planetary Boundaries concept (PBc) has emerged as a key global sustainability<br/>concept in international sustainable development arenas. Initially presented as an agenda for global<br/>sustainability research, it now shows potential for sustainability governance.Weuse the fact that it is<br/>widely cited in scientific literature (>3500 citations) and an extensively studied concept to analyse how<br/>it has been used and developed since its first publication. Design: From the literature that cites the PBc,<br/>we select those articles that have the terms ‘planetary boundaries’ or ‘safe operating space’ in either<br/>title, abstract or keywords.Weassume that this literature substantively engages with and develops the<br/>PBc. Results:Wefind that6%of the citing literature engages with the concept. Within this fraction of<br/>the literature we distinguish commentaries—that discuss the context and challenges to implementing<br/>the PBc, articles that develop the core biogeophysical concept and articles that apply the concept by<br/>translating to sub-global scales and by adding a human component to it. Applied literature adds to the<br/>concept by explicitly including society through perspectives of impacts, needs, aspirations and<br/>behaviours. Discussion: Literature applying the concept does not yet include the more complex, diverse,<br/>cultural and behavioural facet of humanity that is implied in commentary literature.Wesuggest there<br/>is need for a positive framing of sustainability goals—as a Safe Operating Space rather than<br/>boundaries. Key scientific challenges include distinguishing generalised from context-specific knowledge,<br/>clarifying which processes are generalizable and which are scalable, and explicitly applying<br/>complex systems’ knowledge in the application and development of the PBc.Weenvisage that<br/>opportunities to address these challenges will arise when more human social dimensions are<br/>integrated, as we learn to feed the global sustainability vision with a plurality of bottom-up realisations<br/>of sustainability.}},
author = {{Downing, A.S. and Bhowmik, A. and Collste, David and Cornell, Sarah and Donges, J. and Fetzer, Ingo and Häyhä, t. and Hinton, Jennifer B. and Lade, Steven J. and Mooij, Wolf M.}},
issn = {{1748-9326}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{IOP Publishing}},
series = {{Environmental Research Letters}},
title = {{Matching scope, purpose and uses of planetary boundaries science}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab22c9}},
doi = {{10.1088/1748-9326/ab22c9}},
volume = {{14}},
year = {{2019}},
}