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An Analysis of a Sustainability Index
Södertörn University, School of Social Sciences, Economics.
University of Gävle, Sweden.
2021 (English)In: Sustainable Consumption and Production, Volume I: Challenges and Development / [ed] Bali Swain, Ranjula; Sweet, Susanne, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, p. 39-63Chapter in book (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

In this chapter, we perform a conceptual analysis of a household sustainable consumption index, whose construction is based on guidelines in a handbook issued by OECD. We conclude in our analysis that the designers of the index treat the concept ‘sustainable consumption’ as a descriptive concept, and argue that this interpretation is a conceptual mistake. A consequence of this mistake is that the construction of the index is treated as a kind of statistical and empirical problem only. Instead, we argue that sustainable consumption is a specific kind of value concept named intermediate concept, whose function is to link descriptive grounds with normative consequences, and thus that the construction of the index is a normative problem. That is, the construction of a sustainable consumption index should be regarded as a normative multi-attribute decision process. A policy implication of our study is that when measuring sustainability, a decision analytic approach based on an adequate interpretation of the concept sustainability as an intermediate concept should be employed. In order to avoid low validity of sustainability indices as a result of making a conceptual mistake, it is possible to explicitly treat the construction of a sustainability index as a normative multi-attribute decision process that can be aided by decision support tools. The relevance of our analysis to policymakers and other stakeholders is that it contributes to a deeper understanding of what kind of concept sustainability is and what it means to measure such concepts. Without a proper understanding of the nature of this concept, there is an obvious risk of low validity of its measurement.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021. p. 39-63
National Category
Economics
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URN: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-52551DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-56371-4_3ISBN: 978-3-030-56370-7 (print)ISBN: 978-3-030-56373-8 (print)ISBN: 978-3-030-56371-4 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:sh-52551DiVA, id: diva2:1807244
Available from: 2023-10-25 Created: 2023-10-25 Last updated: 2023-10-25Bibliographically approved

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Blomskog, Stig

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • harvard-anglia-ruskin-university
  • apa-old-doi-prefix.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-harvard.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-oxford.csl
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf