Shmelev, S.E. and Shmeleva I.A. (eds) (2012) Sustainability Analysis: an Interdisciplinary Approach

The year 2012 will mark 20 years since the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development was adopted by the United Nations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 19921 and ten since the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation were adopted by the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. A decision was made to hold the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012 in Rio de Janeiro (therefore the acronym RIO+20'), which will be conducted at the highest level and is expected to be attended by heads of states and government representatives from all over the world. The goal of the forthcoming Conference will be "to secure renewed political commitment for Sustainable Development, assessing the progress to date and remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of the major summits on sustainable development and addressing new and emerging challenges". The Conference will focus on "a green economy in context of sustainable development, poverty eradication and the institutional framework for sustainable development". The Conference will "ensure a balanced interaction of economic development, social development and environmental protection as they are interdependent and mutually reinforced components of sustainable development".

Elaborating on the concept of sustainable development, this book is a result of collective reflection on the sustainability problematic by an international group of academics from Canada, France, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. It It was inspired by the interdisciplinary discussions started in St Petersburg, Russia, at the conference 'Globalisation, New Economy, and the Environment: Business and Society Challenges for Sustainable Development', organized by the editors of this volume under the auspices of the International Society for Ecological Economics in 2005. This conference brought together leading thinkers in ecological economics, social sciences and psychology from 23 countries. It stimulated further research on a wide range of sustainability issues, including sustainability assessment, the use of psychological methods in sustainability analysis and training, macroeconomic policy, and renewable energy. The present book can form the basis for further interdisciplinary evolution of ideas on sustainable development and thus contribute to the RIO+20 discussions and the environmental policy field.