TY - JOUR

T1 - Pluralism and integration? A systematic review of ecological economics methodological foundations

AU - Kretschmer, Max Friedemann

AU - Engler, John Oliver

AU - von Wehrden, Henrik

AU - Rathgens, Julius

AU - Ament, Joe A.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

PY - 2026/2

Y1 - 2026/2

N2 - For decades, Ecological Economics has spent many resources on research-paradigmatic conflicts. The resulting lack of methodological alignment and consistency creates transaction cost, divides the research community and undermines the paradigmatic agreement needed in working on shared goals. Building on a multivariate statistical full-text analysis of all empirical research papers published in the journal Ecological Economics in the period 1989–2021 (N = 3972), we empirically investigate the landscape of research methods used in the journal Ecological Economics. Our statistical results support the existence of five different methodological clusters. We argue that sustaining pluralism without fragmentation requires context-dependent choices of methods, supported by a diversification of Ecological Economics orientational paradigms. Methods should be understood as means rather than ends, valued for their ability to address questions aligned with the field's pre-analytical vision.

AB - For decades, Ecological Economics has spent many resources on research-paradigmatic conflicts. The resulting lack of methodological alignment and consistency creates transaction cost, divides the research community and undermines the paradigmatic agreement needed in working on shared goals. Building on a multivariate statistical full-text analysis of all empirical research papers published in the journal Ecological Economics in the period 1989–2021 (N = 3972), we empirically investigate the landscape of research methods used in the journal Ecological Economics. Our statistical results support the existence of five different methodological clusters. We argue that sustaining pluralism without fragmentation requires context-dependent choices of methods, supported by a diversification of Ecological Economics orientational paradigms. Methods should be understood as means rather than ends, valued for their ability to address questions aligned with the field's pre-analytical vision.

KW - Big tent

KW - Epistemology

KW - Methodological pluralism

KW - Ontology

KW - Philosophy of Science

KW - Social ecological economics

KW - Systematic review

KW - Biology

KW - Economics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105019975898&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108832

DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108832

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:105019975898

VL - 240

JO - Ecological Economics

JF - Ecological Economics

SN - 0921-8009

M1 - 108832

ER -