International Journal of Sustainable Development (11 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• Sustainable supply chain intervention: a case base analysis of the economics of land degradation  
  by Gitika Goswami, Supriyo Roy, Satabdi Datta, Srishti Manna 
  Abstract: Sustainability has been considered central to developmental issues across the world. The exploitation of natural resources without concern for ecological balance results in environmental degradation, a disorder in social structure, and economic instability. Therefore, the focus for sustenance has shifted towards retaining a balance between 'people, planet, and profit'. Land is one of the most valuable resources, and its degradation causes loss of productivity, thus making an imbalance to supply chain sustainability. The present study examines the economics of land degradation and its impact on natural, social, and human capital. The aim of the survey is to explore the most degraded areas of the Bundelkhand region in Madhya Pradesh, India. We performed a comparative analysis between intervention and control villages to identify land remediation measures in the concerned villages. The study's findings significantly highlight the performance variations across intervention and control villages concerning the selected indicators to match the desired sustainable development goals.
  Keywords: land remediation; supply chain intervention; social developmental indicators; economics of land degradation; sustainability.
  
  
• Economic growth and sustainable developments within the BRICS, MINT and G-7 countries: a comparative panel data analysis  
  by Olawumi Dele Awolusi, Josue Mbonigaba 
  Abstract: After three decades of growth, sustainability of economic growth in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries has been documented as a major problem given the diverse nature of socioeconomic, institutional and environmental characteristics in the group, especially, as some members of the group change status from emerging economies to developed economies. Therefore, understanding the knowledge of how economic growth would affect the level of development in individual countries is important in solving this problem. Consequently, this study analysed the effect of economic growth on sustainable development within the BRICS, MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey) and G-7 countries using a panel dataset from 1990 to 2017. After testing for cross-sectional dependency and panel Unit Root, the study estimates via the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) were supported by Cross-Sectional Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) and Cross-Sectional Distributed Lag (CS-DL). The results confirm that sustainable development and economic growth are co-integrated at the panel level, indicating the presence of long-run equilibrium relationships. Our results are robust to all the robustness checks, including temporal and spatial changes. Consequently, the study concluded that economic growth increases the level of sustainable developments in the BRICS, MINT and G-7 countries in the short run. However, except for the G-7 countries, economic growth was a drag on sustainable development in the BRICS and MINT countries in the long run. The study thereby suggests improved institutional support, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), domestic investment, and financial development policies to achieve sustainable developments in the BRICS blocs. Unique from previous studies, the novelty of this study is partly the construction of sustainable development indexes that are robust to cross-sectional dependence and small sample bias
  Keywords: sustainable development; economic growth; CS-ARDL; CS-DL; BRICS countries.
  
  
• The I The international impact of Manfred Max-Neefs scholarship: a bibliometric approach  
  by María Del Valle Barrera, Patricio Belloy, Benoit Mougenot, Jean Pierre Doussoulin 
  Abstract: This study is the first approach to measure and assess the global scholarly impact of Prof. Manfred Max-Neefs work (1932-2019). Our research uses bibliometric analysis and the Scopus database to identify the interdisciplinarity and internationalization of Max-Neefs ideas and recognise their contribution to human and sustainable development. We measure the impact in terms of quantity and quality of citing publications, international collaboration networks, and disciplinary areas influenced by Max-Neefs work. We acknowledge that this first analysis should be strengthened by adding sources of publications and by expanding the analysis to non-academic spaces, including transition initiatives and other social organisation practices.
  Keywords: Max-Neef; human scale development; human development; sustainable development; transdisciplinarity; fundamental human needs.
  
  
• Public participation, innovation capability and green growth: A pilot study in Beijing  
  by Xiaoling Wang, Yu Han, Lixia Wang, Hanfei Wen, Qinglong Shao 
  Abstract: Existing studies mainly discuss the effects of command-and-control as well as market-oriented environmental regulations on green economies, yet few have focused on the functions of public participation in environmental governance, especially from a dynamic angle. To further enrich the discussion, this study constructs a dynamic relationship analytical framework between public participation and green growth to test existence of the Porter Hypothesis (PH). Under this framework, a green GDP index is first constructed to represent the level of green growth. In addition, technological innovation is introduced as an intervening variable to observe the influencing mechanism of public participation on green growth. The research findings based on an empirical test of Beijing data confirm that a long-term stable coordination relationship exists among the three variables. Public participation promotes the improvement of innovation capability and green growth, but not vice versa. Therefore, the significant role of public participatory environmental regulation is supported which indicates that the PH is valid. Moreover, a virtuous circle relationship is also found between innovation and green growth. Accordingly, policy implications are proposed to advocate public participation in environmental regulations to promote regional green growth.
  Keywords: green GDP; environmental regulation; public participation; innovation capability; vector autoregressive model.
  
  
• Perceptions regarding sustainable innovation in marketing in the Brazilian fast food sector  
  by Adriana Beatriz Madeira, Fabiana Gama De Medeiros, Gilberto Perez 
  Abstract: This study sought to understand experts perceptions regarding sustainable innovations in marketing in the fast food sector in Brazil. As a research method, it used in-depth interviews and convenience sampling, with eight interviewees, including researchers, managers and consultants with at least 10 years of experience in the fast food sector. By analysing the content of the interviews (using the 13 pre-existing categories from the literature review, plus two new categories that emerged), it was noted that the interviewees found it difficult to identify the concept of sustainability. In addition, the Brazilian context appears to be an obstacle for the adoption of more sustainable consumption habits by the population in general, owing to an educational gap. The interviewees indicated the need to develop public policies for the country to enable the implementation of sustainable innovations. There is little evidence of specific sustainable innovations in the fast food sector in Brazil.
  Keywords: fast food; sustainable innovation; sustainable innovation in marketing.
  
  

Special Issue on: Manfred Max-Neef's Contributions to Theory, Methods and Practice In Sustainable Development Applications of his Work

• Fundamental human needs and socio-ecological transformation: a reflection on participatory action research in a context of tree plantations in Chile  
  by Alejandro Mora-Motta, Till Stellmacher, Maria Del Valle Barrera 
  Abstract: The methodological and analytical strength of the fundamental human needs (FHN) approach, originally developed by Max-Neef and colleagues, relies on the separation of finite needs from context-specific satisfiers and a type of participatory action research (PAR) used to define and assess people's well-being. This paper aims to reflect on the FHN PAR workshop-based method, adapted and used to study how expanding extractivist tree plantations in southern Chile affects the well-being of peasant and Mapuche-Williche people. The reflection is based on intensive fieldwork conducted in 2016 and 2017 in La Uni
  Keywords: fundamental human needs; extractivism; tree plantations; socio-ecological transformation; Chile.
  
  
• Urban research for sustainability: developing a comparative transdisciplinary co-production approach to realise just cities  
  by Henrietta Palmer, David Simon, Jan Riise 
  Abstract: This paper engages with Manfred Max-Neefs approach to transdisciplinarity in relation to an innovative international cross-city research program. Given the inadequacies of conventional methods, fundamentally different approaches are required to meet the wicked problem challenges of transition towards sustainable societies. Mistra Urban Futures, a Swedish-based research centre with multi-institutional partnerships in eight cities on four continents, designed a co-produced comparative research program to address the realisation of just cities through a typology enabling the comparison of urgent local priorities. This paper reflects on the approach and its relevance to Max-Neefs call for understanding as central to a transdisciplinary approach. Key findings include how understanding, together with the realisation of just cities, emerge intertwined as methodological outcomes. These outcomes also supported the processes, hence contributing to the discourses on transition and the methodologies of transdisciplinarity and comparative urban research.
  Keywords: transdisciplinarity; co-production; Manfred Max-Neef; Mistra Urban Futures; comparative urban research; realising just cities; urban justice; urban experiments; self-reflexive learning; multi-stakeholder partnerships.
  
  
• A novel tool for quality-of-life assessment in the household context  
  by Montagu Murray, Christiaan Pauw 
  Abstract: This article describes the development and application of an original tool that assesses quality-of-life in the household context: Part 1 reflects on how the practical challenges the Nova Institute faces in executing its vision and mission in the low-income context in South Africa demand the assessment of quality-of-life impact. We could not find a readily available tool comprehensive enough to justify its use for assessing a notion as broad as quality-of-life in the household context but still limited enough to be practical. This inspired us to develop an original quality-of-life assessment tool. Part 2 examines how this endeavour builds on the insights of quality-of-life studies as sub-discipline of sociology, but specifically also on the conceptual work of Manfred Max-Neef. Part 3 describes the methods used to design a quality-of-life assessment tool and explains how Max-Neefs concepts are expounded to develop the tool. Part 4 presents an example taken from the results of a general household survey in more than a thousand households, together with an in-depth quality of life assessment in forty-six of these households, to illustrate the application of the tool. We conclude that the tool provides a practical way to sensibly combine subjective and objective indicators in quality-of-life analysis.
  Keywords: Max-Neef; needs theory; human scale development; quality of life studies; social indicators; fundamental human needs; quality of life assessment.
  
  
• Max-Neef and sustainability: theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions  
  by Lina Brand-Correa, Julia Steinberger 
  Abstract: The work of Manfred Max-Neef has been hugely influential in many areas of academia. One of those areas has been sustainability studies in general, through to energy studies from a social science perspective more specifically. In this paper, we explore how Max-Neefs work has been used to describe energy, more specifically energy services, as need satisfiers. Moreover, we also describe how the study of energy services as need satisfiers has been undertaken in practice, with urban and rural communities in Colombia, Zambia and Nepal. Our empirical work is based on Max-Neefs workshops, albeit with some adaptations. We have named the adapted approach HuSES (Human Scale Energy Services). The HuSES approach has allowed us to understand which energy services are more synergetic for the communities we have worked with, and therefore we consider it to be a useful tool for prioritising energy interventions.
  Keywords: Max-Neef; sustainability; energy; human scale development; satisfiers; socio-technical provisioning systems.
  
  
• Self-reflexive practice through the Human Scale Development approach competencies needed for transformative science research  
  by Salina Spiering 
  Abstract: Solution-oriented transformative science (TSc) is increasingly being discussed as a means to produce participatory and actionable knowledge for sustainability transitions. This requires that researchers adopt different roles, competencies and a degree of reflexivity which, thus far, are often not fully applied. This article proposes the Human Scale Development approach (HSDA) of the Chilean economist, Max-Neef, as a valuable framework to engage in self-reflexive research practices. Inspired by autoethnography, I draw on my own sustainability research as a PhD student, paying close attention to deprivations and potentials that I encountered, exploring how self-reflexive practices enhance the understanding of competencies and elucidating how to adopt and fulfil required research roles and procedures. I show how such a self-reflexive process can be a useful (training) tool not only for early PhD researchers and for supervision, but may add value for TSc scholars in general.
  Keywords: autoethnography; transformative science; self-reflexive practice; Human Scale Development approach; roles of researcher; competencies; values; reflexivity; sustainability science.
  
  
• Waste management in rural South Africa: perspectives from Manfred Max-Neef's human scale development framework  
  by Rinie Schenck, Derick Blaauw, Charlotte Nell 
  Abstract: The impact of limited or non-existing formalised waste management services in rural areas can have severe consequences for both the community and the environment. The void is often filled by unregulated waste management practices such as indiscriminate dumping, littering, and open burning. Using Max-Neefs human scale development theory lens, we conducted a case study of a remote rural town in the Free State province of South Africa to investigate the linkages and interdependencies between waste management in the town with other poverties experienced by the residents. The results direct us towards synergic waste solutions and systemic satisfiers to be developed with the communities that can lead to satisfaction in more than one fundamental human need. Waste management solutions as synergic satisfiers should primarily view waste as a possible valuable resource to enable increased participation towards improvement in multiple fundamental human needs.
  Keywords: waste management; illegal dumping; littering; Max-Neef; fundamental human needs; human-scale development; sustainability.