Journal
ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS
Volume 103, Issue -, Pages 29-37Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2014.04.012
Keywords
Bibliographic analysis; Ecosystem services; Ethics; Multivariate statistics; Normative knowledge; Transformative knowledge; Sustainability; Systems knowledge
Funding
- Sofja Kovalevskaja Award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation - German Ministry of Education and Research
- European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
- Federal State of Lower Saxony
- Leuphana University Innovation Incubator
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Ecosystem services research has become a major academic field, drawing in various academic disciplines, perspectives, and research approaches. The multifaceted concept of ecosystem services includes a normative component, which has strong implicit links to the notion of sustainability. Yet, how ecosystem services research relates to sustainability has received little attention. We reviewed the current state of research on ecosystem services, and examined whether the concept's original motivation has allowed it to act as an effective boundaty object for the integration of the diverse knowledge related to sustainability. A full-text, multivariate statistical analysis of 1388 peer-reviewed publications on ecosystem services from 1997 to 2011 revealed a rapidly growing but fragmented body of research, which has emphasized the development of descriptive understandings of human-nature interactions. Future challenges for the ecosystem services concept include greater integration of currently fragmented knowledge domains and stronger engagement with the concept's normative foundations. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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