The Impact of the Web of Meta-structures on the Sustainability Relations

Abstract

Chapter 8 provides conclusions from the analyses in Chap. 6 and 7. I discuss the overall impact of the meta-structures on the sustainability relations, i.e. on our relationship with contemporaries, future generations, and nature. The meta-structures play a crucial role for the understanding and actualization of the sustainability relations. It is not only each individual meta-structure that has a distinguished impact on the sustainability relations, but the complex, interrelated web of meta-structures as a whole. By the mechanisms of the web of meta-structures we are already set in a certain way into the sustainability relations. The individual cannot realize these relations with absolute autonomy or in isolation. Rather, the realization and actualization of the sustainability relations is already determined to a large extent by the meta-structures.