Spirituality and Sustainable Development: A Systematic Word Frequency Analysis and an Agenda for Research in Pacific Island Countries

Johannes M. Luetz (), Elizabeth Nichols, Karen du Plessis and Patrick D. Nunn
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Johannes M. Luetz: Graduate Research School, Alphacrucis University College (AC), Brisbane, QLD 4102, Australia
Elizabeth Nichols: Otago Business School, University of Otago, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand
Karen du Plessis: Christian Heritage College, Carindale, QLD 4122, Australia
Patrick D. Nunn: School of Law and Society, Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre, University of Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast, QLD 4556, Australia

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: While different in emphasis, spirituality and sustainable development are intertwined concepts that cannot be meaningfully discussed in isolation from each other. This is especially pertinent in Pacific Island countries that are characterised by both high degrees of vulnerability to climate change and high degrees of religious engagement. There is a paucity of research that examines the relationship between spirituality and sustainable development in contemporary human development discourse. To address this gap in the literature, this research employs an inductive and exploratory methodological approach to the study of major development organisations in Australia. It investigates what significance contemporary NGOs ascribe to matters of spirituality in the design and implementation of their community aid and development programming in the Pacific and beyond. To achieve its goal, the study conducts a systematic term frequency analysis in the annual reports of government-funded and independently funded NGOs, both faith-based and secular. It extends previous research by focusing expressly on the intersectionality of sustainable development and spirituality as a fertile space for interdisciplinary inquiry. The findings link development policy and practice more closely to the needs and worldviews of Pacific peoples. A better understanding of the spirituality–sustainability nexus will enable more effective, sustainable, equitable, ethical, and culturally acceptable development programming. Crucially, integrated approaches promise to make ongoing community development programmes and adaptation responses to climate-driven environmental change more effective and sustainable. Finally, it is an important aim of this study to conceptualise various opportunities for future research, thus laying the foundation for an important emergent research agenda.

Keywords: spirituality; sustainable development; Australia; Pacific; indigenous; systematic keyword research; word frequency analysis; future research agenda (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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