Movement and Sustainability

Abstract

When reading different sources in relation to sustainability, it is easy to become confused about the term and its definition. Think of “a sustainable growth rate” in finance, Michael Porter’s “sustainable competitive advantage” and “the sustainable use of natural resources” in environmental jargon. The concept of sustainability is one about which there is little agreement within literature although it is recognised that an economic and an ecological element play an important role in its conceptualisation. Most of the time these elements are perceived as divided, as separated, in which the economic one functions as internal and at the inside whereas the ecological one remains external and at the outside. Between the two there is a boundary that does not allow pollution. Instead, regarding the inside as the outside and vice versa (cf. Cooper, 1990) emphasizes the boundary that structures them. A boundary, or that which binds together, mainly stresses the need for each other. Boundaries shape the different elements which implies that the elements themselves need each other in order to exist. The idea that all these elements are only parts of a larger system is the thin red line that binds this paper.