Strategic thinking for sustainable development

TLDR

Sustainable development contributions have been debated at conferences of the International Sustainable Development Research Society (ISDRS). This editorial seeks to clarify the environmental dimension debate, examine why progress has been slow, and propose strategic thinking to overcome reductionist shortcomings. The authors introduce strategic thinking, defined by three dimensions—content, process, and context—to counter reductionism in sustainable development practice. Their review of international peer‑reviewed papers shows that reductionist approaches lead to problem shifting and displacement, explaining the slow progress. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Abstract

Abstract The idea of this editorial research article is to start making sense out of the seemingly limitless debate on the environmental dimension of sustainable development. We have evaluated a collection of international peer‐reviewed papers. These contributions have been debated at the conferences of the International Sustainable Development Research Society (ISDRS). Our main research objective here is to consider the often posed question of why the progress made in sustainable development has been so slow and the work implemented so unsuccessful. We argue that one of the main explanations is that the approaches used in sustainable development are reductionist and often lead into problem shifting and problem displacement. To address the problem of reductionism, we propose what we call ‘strategic thinking’ and its incorporation into sustainable development work in general. To open up this argument, we arrive at the discussion of three central dimensions of strategic thinking and the relevance of these dimensions when addressing reductionism. These dimensions are the strategy content, strategy process and strategy context. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.