Manufacturing the Myth of Sustainability: Stories From the Physical and Social Sciences

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This paper argues, based on extensive interview work with high-level actors in various sectors of sustainability movements, that these constituencies are spreading normative narratives that appear to be coalescing into an increasingly global myth of sustainability. Moreover, this myth operates as a new “sacred story” aimed at promoting peace, security, and quality of life. The idea of sustainability grew from the recognition of ecological scarcity, and from the advocacy of sustainable yield and use of natural resources, and contains normative assumptions that may support both existing institutionalized systems, as well as counter-hegemonic movements. Yet all these stories, what I call the collected myth of sustainability, are grounded in an evolutionary narrative, and draw from this epic a normative focus on an ethics of kinship and responsibility. I review the importance of two streams of thought—the popularization of holistic interpretations of biological and physical sciences, and the historic connections between the emergence of “development” and the historical study of religions—as undergirding this emerging myth of sustainability. Drawing on qualitative data, I raise some questions about how to settle normative questions on a local within what is rapidly becoming a global sustainability discourse.

Stream: Cultural Sustainability

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Mr. Johnston holds an undergraduate degree in psychology from Wake Forest University, and a masters degree in theology from the Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley) focusing on environmental ethics and philosophy of science. Most recently, Mr. Johnston received the Graduate Environmental Ethics Certificate from the University of Georgia, with a focus on environmental dispute resolution. His dissertation analyzes the evolution of values related to sustainability discourse. Using qualitative data gathering and analysis, he investigates to what extent lead actors in international economic regimes and socially and environmentally concerned NGOs are becoming ecological, and to what extent ecology and biodiversity discourse is becoming spiritualized.