Domains of sustainability

One dominant framework sets the terms for almost all thinking today about questions of sustainability. Whether contemporary policy-makers are aware of it or not, this structure is the basis of the way that most practitioners and thinkers across the globe approach sustainability issues. The framework assumes that sustainability should be understood in terms of three domains: the economy, the environment, and the social. These domains are said to relate to each other as three independent spheres of life. They are usually depicted visually as three pillars, as a Venn diagram of three intersecting circles, or as three nested concentric circles with the economy at the center. In each case their combined outcome is one of supposed sustainability. Today, sustainability is a foundational concept for public administration, policy-making and political governance, and versions of this threedomain framework are everywhere in policy documents. Despite this prevalence, however, the framework is rarely interrogated in either an intensive or sustained way. By comparison, policy content is regularly examined for its potential impact on sustainability outcomes. Practices of sustainability are routinely evaluated for their consequences. And indicator sets are carefully formulated for assessing sustainability. At the same time, the frame for defining and operationalizing sustainability is usually left as an assumed set of categories: economy, environment (or ecology), and social (or society), with the economy usually striding out in front as the first among "equals." In other words, economic considerations have become the center of almost all decision-making processes, and the economy (note the definite article "the" here denoting the singularity of the concept) is treated as central to the human condition, qualifying and providing a measure of comparison for everything else.