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How Sustainability Is Defined: An Analysis of 100 Theoretical Approximations

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  • Arturo Luque González

    (Facultad de Ciencias Humanísticas y Sociales, Universidad Técnica de Manabí, Ave. José María Urbina and Che Guevara, Portoviejo 130105, Ecuador
    Escuela de Administración-Grupo de Investigación en Dirección y Gerencia, Universidad del Rosario, Calle 12C, 6-25, Bogotá 111711, Colombia)

  • Jesús Ángel Coronado Martín

    (Facultad de Educación, Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Técnica del Norte, Av. 17 de julio 5-21 y Gral, José María Cordova, Ibarra 100105, Ecuador)

  • Ana Cecilia Vaca-Tapia

    (Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad UTE, Rumipamba y Bourgeois, Quito 170147, Ecuador)

  • Francklin Rivas

    (Departamento de Informática, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Av. España 1680, Valparaíso 2340000, Chile)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Arturo Luque González & Jesús Ángel Coronado Martín & Ana Cecilia Vaca-Tapia & Francklin Rivas, 2021. "How Sustainability Is Defined: An Analysis of 100 Theoretical Approximations," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-20, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:9:y:2021:i:11:p:1308-:d:570335
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    References listed on IDEAS

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