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Sustainability science: the changing landscape of sustainability research

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  • New Directions in Sustainability Science
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Abstract

Sustainability science is a rapidly expanding field, particularly given the current ecological crises facing many parts of the globe today. To generate a snapshot of the state of sustainability science, we analyzed the current status of sustainability research using citation and text analysis. By reflecting social needs on sustainability science and the increasing number of publications in this field, the landscape is expected to change during the last decade. Our results indicate that previously separated research clusters investigating discipline-focused issues are becoming integrated into those studying coupled systems. We also found the existence of hub clusters bridging different clusters like socio-ecological systems and transition management. We also observed a variety of other emerging research clusters, especially in energy issues, technologies, and systems. Overall, our analysis suggests that sustainability science is a rapidly expanding and diversifying field, which has affected many disparate scientific disciplines and has the potential to feed scientific understanding on socio-ecological systems and to drive society toward transition for sustainability.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Prof. Kensuke Fukushi and Prof. Kazuhiko Takeuchi at The University of Tokyo for their encouraging discussions. We also thank the helpful and constructive comments raised by anonymous reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Innovation Management, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 3-3-6 Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-0023, Japan

    Yuya Kajikawa

  2. Institute of Engineering Innovation, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 2-11-16 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan

    Francisco Tacoa & Kiyohiro Yamaguchi

Authors
  1. Yuya Kajikawa
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  2. Francisco Tacoa
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  3. Kiyohiro Yamaguchi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuya Kajikawa.

Additional information

Handled by Karel F. Mulder, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.

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Kajikawa, Y., Tacoa, F. & Yamaguchi, K. Sustainability science: the changing landscape of sustainability research. Sustain Sci 9, 431–438 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-014-0244-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-014-0244-x

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