How Sustainability Is Defined: An Analysis of 100 Theoretical Approximations

Arturo Luque González; Jesús Ángel Coronado Martín; Ana Cecilia Vaca-Tapia; Francklin Rivas

doi:10.3390/math9111308

How Sustainability Is Defined: An Analysis of 100 Theoretical Approximations

Journal

Mathematics

ISSN

2227-7390

Date Issued

2021-06-07

Author(s)

Arturo Luque González

Jesús Ángel Coronado Martín

Ana Cecilia Vaca-Tapia

Facultad de Derecho, Ciencias Administrativas y Sociales

Francklin Rivas

DOI

10.3390/math9111308

URL

https://cris.ute.edu.ec/handle/123456789/601

Abstract

Sustainability processes are imperfect, hence there is a need to analyze their construction, evolution and deployment. To this end, a sample of one hundred sustainability constructs was taken, together with their conceptual approaches, in order to gauge their impact and to ascertain the dimensions to which they belong. A frequency count and categorization were carried out using Google, which saturated in seven dimensions: economic, social, environmental, legal, political, ethical and cultural. A higher-order association of these hierarchies was then proposed, establishing a triad model that indicated only the most representative combinations of dimensions resulting from the extraction of the most significant definitions. From these definitions and in accordance with their frequency of use in Google, it is inferred that the current concept of sustainability is based on the economic-social-ethical category. This highlights the distance between what, a priori, seems to implicitly allow any definition of sustainability and the existing reality.