SUSTAINABILITY - SOCIAL AND ECOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS

The recent focus on sustainability as guiding principle for economic a ctivity has generated many (often conflicting) definitions of sustaina ble economic development. Yet while the terminology may be new, the di scussion is not. It parallels the discussion about biases of economic valuation concepts that have led to the neglect of the domestic and su bsistence contributions relegated to the ''informal'' or household sec tor. This paper argues that the narrow definition of economic theory, methodology, and valuation concepts has led to the detrimental neglect of sustaining functions without which economic activity is impaired. To move toward sustainability it is imperative to regain a broader und erstanding of economics. Three principles are identified as essential for this conceptual expansion of economics. They are: concreteness rat her than abstraction, connectedness rather than isolation, and diversi ty rather than homogeneity. All three are informed by feminist theory. Thus it is argued that the voices of women who have gone largely unhe ard in economics are essential to reconceptualizing economics as susta inable.