Glossary - Understanding Sustainable Development - page 339

Ecosystem A community of living organisms living in relation to non-living elements
in a given environment.
Ecosystem services The ways in which natural biological processes enable and
support the continuous enjoyment of a range of economic and other benefits
required by human society.
Education for sustainability An holistic approach to education and learning that
enables people to develop the knowledge, skills and values necessary for sustain-
able living.
Environmental justice A social movement and philosophy that posits the need for
an equitable distribution of environmental benefits and burdens.
Gaia A term closely associated with the scientist James Lovelock which likens the
Earth to a living organism.
Globalization A process relating to the global integration of economic, com-
munication, trade, cultural and other factors.
Governance The act and manner of governing relating to practices of expectations,
verifications and scrutiny.
Greenhouse gas A gas in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, that absorbs and
emits radiation.
Indigenous people Groups of people native to a particular locality or bioregion
who are usually vulnerable to marginalization, exploitation and oppression.
Localization A process whereby decision-making and economic development is
focused at a local level such as town, village or neighbourhood.
Media ecology The study of media environments and the idea that technology,
modes of information and codes of communication play a major role in human
society.
Resilience Within ecology, the capacity of an ecosystem to respond to a disturbance
by resisting damage and recovering effectively within a given time frame.
Rio A shorthand term referring to the Earth Summits held in Rio de Janeiro in
1992 and 2012, the latter often called Rio+20.
Risk society A term associated with Ulrich Beck, denoting the manner in which a
society organizes its response to natural or human-induced risks, dangers and
uncertainties.
Social capital Relationships of and resources for human social reciprocity and co-
operation existing with a society or community.
Social ecology A critical social theory developed by Murray Bookchin relating issues
of social and economic equality with environmental justice.
Sustainability Often referred to as goal relating to living and producing within the
Earth's biological and ecological limits.
Sustainability science A new largely applied academic discipline designed to advance
understanding of the dynamics of human-environmental systems.
Sustainable development A concept and a practice aiming to reconcile the goal of
sustainability with that of continuing economic development and well-being.
Systems thinking Seeing the world holistically as an arrangement of interconnected
and co-operative components, structures and processes.
Urban sustainability The capacity of a city or urban settlement to be organized
with view to limiting or reducing its environmental impacts in a progressively
positive manner.
Worldview A fundamentally cognitive and value-laden orientation of an individual,
group or society to understand the nature of the world and universe beyond.