Modeling normativity in sustainability: a comparison of the sustainable development goals, the Paris agreement, and the papal encyclical

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The idea of sustainability is intrinsically nor-mative. Thus, understanding the role of normativity in sustainability discourses is crucial for further developing sustainability science. In this article, we analyze three important documents that aim to advance sustainability and explore how they organize norms in relation to sustain-ability. The three documents are: the Pope's Encyclical Laudato Si', the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. We show that understanding the role of different types of norms in the three documents can help understand normative features of both scientific and non-scientific sustainability discourses. We present the diverse system of norms in a model that interrelates three different levels: macro, meso, and micro. Our model highlights how several processes affect the normative orientation of nations and societies at the meso-level in different ways. For instance, individual ethical norms at the micro-level, such as personal responsibility, may help decelerate unsustainable consumerism at the aggregate meso-level. We also show that techno-scientific norms at the macro-level representing global indicators for sustainability may accelerate innovations. We suggest that our model can help better organize normative features of sustainability dis-courses and, therefore, to contribute to the further devel-opment of sustainability science.
Original languageEnglish
JournalSustainability Science
Volume13
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)785-796
Number of pages12
ISSN1862-4065
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.05.2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Acknowledgement This research has been founded by the Volk-swagenstiftung under the program ‘‘Science and Scholarship for Sustainable Development’’.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, The Author(s).

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