This project will critically analyze how the concept of sustainability functions as a norm in three settings: within disciplines, as a social goal, and in setting agricultural and development policy. The project is a multidisciplinary effort involving a philosopher, a soil scientist, and an anthropologist. The disciplinary orientations of agronomy and archeology will provide contrasting scientific approaches to the study of sustainability. Examining how these two disciplines compare and contrast in their approaches to the concept of sustainability will provide a basis for understanding how sustainability functions as a norm in disciplinary contexts. The principal investigator will review events of the past decade to examine how sustainability has emerged as a political norm nationally and internationally. The three collaborators will work together to develop a strategy for integrating and constructing an approach to sustainability that takes cognizance of both scientific and political norms, and which uses ethical goals as a way of bridging disciplinary divisions that emerge with respect to sustainability. They will compare alternative interpretations of sustainability as a norm for research policy decision making, and analyze how these norms are influenced by disciplinary interpretations and what social goals the research policy norms are likely to achieve. Project results will be disseminated through books, articles, and presentations at professional associations and relevant meetings.
