An essential guide to sustainable development for students and practitionersSustainability is a global imperative and a scientific challenge like no other. This concise guide provides students and practitioners with a strategic framework for linking knowledge with action in the pursuit of sustainable development, and serves as an invaluable companion to more narrowly focused courses dealing with sustainability in particular sectors such as energy, food, water, and housing, or in particular regions of the world.Written by leading experts, Pursuing Sustainability shows how more inclusive and interdisciplinary approaches and systems perspectives can help you achieve your sustainability objectives. It stresses the need for understanding how capital assets are linked to sustainability goals through the complex adaptive dynamics of social-environmental systems, how committed people can use governance processes to alter those dynamics, and how successful interventions can be shaped through collaborations among researchers and practitioners on the ground.The ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate students and an invaluable resource for anyone working in this fast-growing field, Pursuing Sustainability also features case studies, a glossary, and suggestions for further reading.

Preface viiAcknowledgments ix
CHAPTER 1 Pursuing Sustainability: An Introduction 1
CHAPTER 2 A Framework for Sustainability Analysis: Linking Ultimate Goals with Their Underlying Determinants 14
CHAPTER 3 Dynamics of Social-Environmental Systems 52
CHAPTER 4 Governance in Social-Environmental Systems 83
CHAPTER 5 Linking Knowledge with Action 105
CHAPTER 6 Next Steps: Contributing to a Sustainability Transition 129
Appendix A Case Studies in Sustainability 143
Appendix B Glossary of Terms, Acronyms, and Additional Resources 187
Notes 211
Index 225