Industrial Ecology

Paradigm Shift or Normal Science

Bibliographic Data

ID3759181
AuthorsJohn R Ehrenfeld (0000-0002-2136-2671, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume44
Issue2
Pages229-244
Publication date2000-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00027640021956189
OpenAlexW4236533833
LanguageEN
Citations received60
References cited8

Industrial ecology is an evolving framework for the analysis and design of public policy, corporate strategy, and technological systems and products. Its metaphorical denotation springs from conceptual models characteristic of sustainable or long-lived ecosystems. Some authors stress the material and energy flows within a system of producers and consumers and aim to build knowledge about these flows that can be used for such design purposes as above. Others see industrial ecology primarily in its more metaphorical sense as providing new normative themes for a possibly sustainable world. Such norms include connectedness, cooperation, and community. These particular norms are, more or less, contrary to prevailing elements of social structures in market-based, industrialized nations. The paradigmatic, normative potential of industrial ecology is contrasted with its potential as an emerging "science" of sustainability

Applied ecology · Biology · Business · Conceptual framework · Denotation (semiotics) · Economic system · Economics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Industrial ecology · Normal science · Normative · Paradigm shift · Political science · Social connectedness · Social science · Sociology · Sustainability · Systems ecology · Chemistry and Chemical Engineering · Ecology · Sustainable Industrial Ecology · Sustainable Supply Chain Management

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