TY - JOUR
T1 - Ecosystems, strong sustainability and the classical circular economy
AU - Martins, Nuno Ornelas
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier B.V.
Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2016/9/1
Y1 - 2016/9/1
N2 - In this article I argue that notions such as ecosystem services and strong sustainability can be best understood and developed within the theoretical framework advanced by the classical political economists, in which a circular conception of the economy is provided. I also argue that the development of notions such as ecosystem services and strong sustainability has been constrained by the dominance of neoclassical economics, which provides a linear conception of the economy and leads to an emphasis on weak sustainability, which in turn springs from an emphasis on substitutability and aggregate capital. When assessing the relevance of classical political economy for studying ecosystem services and strong sustainability I consider not only the contributions of the classical political economists, but also more recent contributions which draw upon the classical perspective, such as Piero Sraffa's and Amartya Sen's.
AB - In this article I argue that notions such as ecosystem services and strong sustainability can be best understood and developed within the theoretical framework advanced by the classical political economists, in which a circular conception of the economy is provided. I also argue that the development of notions such as ecosystem services and strong sustainability has been constrained by the dominance of neoclassical economics, which provides a linear conception of the economy and leads to an emphasis on weak sustainability, which in turn springs from an emphasis on substitutability and aggregate capital. When assessing the relevance of classical political economy for studying ecosystem services and strong sustainability I consider not only the contributions of the classical political economists, but also more recent contributions which draw upon the classical perspective, such as Piero Sraffa's and Amartya Sen's.
KW - Classical political economy
KW - Ecosystems
KW - Scarcity
KW - Strong sustainability
KW - Value
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84973454229&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.06.003
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.06.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84973454229
SN - 0921-8009
VL - 129
SP - 32
EP - 39
JO - Ecological Economics
JF - Ecological Economics
ER -