Sustainability Problematization and Modeling Opportunities

Eniko Kovacs, Maria-Alexandra Hoaghia, Lacrimioara Senila, Daniela Alexandra Scurtu, Diana Elena Dumitras and Cecilia Roman
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Eniko Kovacs: Research Institute for Analytical Instrumentation subsidiary, National Institute for Research and Development of Optoelectronics Bucharest INOE 2000, 400293 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Maria-Alexandra Hoaghia: Research Institute for Analytical Instrumentation subsidiary, National Institute for Research and Development of Optoelectronics Bucharest INOE 2000, 400293 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Lacrimioara Senila: Research Institute for Analytical Instrumentation subsidiary, National Institute for Research and Development of Optoelectronics Bucharest INOE 2000, 400293 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Daniela Alexandra Scurtu: Research Institute for Analytical Instrumentation subsidiary, National Institute for Research and Development of Optoelectronics Bucharest INOE 2000, 400293 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Diana Elena Dumitras: Faculty of Horticulture, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Cecilia Roman: Research Institute for Analytical Instrumentation subsidiary, National Institute for Research and Development of Optoelectronics Bucharest INOE 2000, 400293 Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 23, 1-26

Abstract: A sound theoretical ground is required for sustainability related concepts reconciliation and operationalization. The current study investigates the opportunities to conceive a homogenous sustainability model derived from theoretical ecology, using as a prototype the “organization” concept from the Chemical Organizations Theory (COT). A sustainability problematization and a literature examination try to capture and link some useful perspectives and sustainability connected concepts. Some of the most influential methods and tools are reviewed, in particular among those relating to the triple bottom line framework and to the ecological footprint family, together with concepts close to the core sustainability definition, like resilience and circularity. Theoretical ecology provides candidate goal functions based on self-organization gradients, such as fitness functions and thermodynamic orientors. The COT formalism provides a higher abstraction level and the algorithms for patterns identification in a reactions network. The sustainability problematization reveals the motifs of a possible model of “total ecosystem”, which subordinates the anthropic cultural (social–economic) system to the thermodynamic, chemical, biological, and cultural determinisms regulating biological and cultural species of an ecological network.

Keywords: ecology; chemical organization theory; self-organization; triple bottom line; ecosystem model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:23:p:10046-:d:454672

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