Product Description

The groundbreaking first edition of Sustainability Indicators reviewed the development and value of sustainability indicators and discussed the advantage of taking a holistic and qualitative approach rather than focusing on strictly quantitative measures. In the new edition the authors bring the literature up to date and show that the basic requirement for a systemic approach is now well grounded in the evidence. They examine the origins and development of the Systemic Sustainability Analysis (SSA), which has been developed in practice in a number of countries on an array of projects since the first edition. They also look at how SSA has evolved into Systemic Prospective Sustainability Analysis (SPSA) and now into IMAGINE, and they provide an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of projects that undertake work in the general field of sustainable development, and, in particular, how a wide range of participatory methodologies have been adopted over the years.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #187269 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
"* 'Explores new ways of thinking about how to measure sustainability... It offers stimulating food for thought for environmental educators and researchers' Environmental Education Research * 'Tells me, as an SI "practitioner", where I have been and why, and more importantly how I should be thinking in order to effectively present to and empower the local community' David Ellis, Principal Pollution Monitoring Officer, Norwich City Council"

About the Author
Simon Bell is senior lecturer at the Open University and co-author with Stephen Morse of Measuring Sustainability (2003) and also co-author of How to Set Up Information Systems (2003). Stephen Morse is reader in development studies, Department of Geography, University of Reading, UK, and author of Indices and Indicators in Development (2004).

Customer Reviews

A well-written practical guide to a highly theoretical subject
I had low expectations for this book which I bought as part of my research into planning for sustainability and sustainability assessment methodology; however it quickly surpassed those and has actually proved to be a real asset. I was expecting another thoughtless discussion of simple quantitative sustainability indicators which generally do a poor job of representing real life complexities, and instead found that not only do the authors seem to agree with my opinion on this but they have thoroughly researched the topic both theoretically and practically and thus saved me much time.

I would recommend this book for anyone who is working, researching or interested in sustainability; how to plan for it, implement it and ultimately measure the success or otherwise of the intervention. Not only are lots of practical examples given and scenarios portrayed which make it interesting and real from a research point of view, but the authors write engagingly and thus the book is easy to read.

My only criticism would be that I felt the momentum of the book did not deliver as strongly in the end as seemingly promised throughout. The examples given were in some ways still quite theoretical and I was not completely convinced that a project stakeholder, whether private or governmental, would be willing to take on the complexity of approach suggested with the reward being possibly less than they would have anticipated (concrete answers for example). Perhaps a re-read and assignment to my own research situation would improve my perception of this aspect.

Overall a well recommended text which has the somewhat rare quality, in academic terms, of being highly readable as well as solid (social/development) science.