Sustaining sustainability science: The role of established inter-disciplines

The establishment of new interdisciplinary fields such as ecological economics, human ecology or technology assessment can be interpreted as a logical consequence of striving for new sustainability sciences that address current global, multi-dimensional and multi-scale challenges. These set out to bridge the gap between the natural and the social sphere, between scientific analysis and societal action. This paper aims at re-assessing the contribution of established inter-disciplines to sustainable development. Journal articles of ecological economics, technology assessment and science and technology studies are evaluated and compared along several proposed features of sustainability science. The results converge in two crucial aspects. (1) Concise societal or political recommendations are not part of present day ‘normal science’, be it a disciplinary or an explicitly interdisciplinary research context. (2) Participatory exercises are rarely applied as a socio-politically embedded practice, despite a high interest in such exercises as an object of study and discussion.     

威廉姆森学术成就的方法论成因及其意义——兼论经济学中的跨学科研究

威廉姆森学术成就的关键在于交易费用理论研究方法的突破。他将社会学和组织理论中的程序分析方法和经济学相结合,形成了"资产专用性"和"根本性转变"等重要交易费用经济学概念;法学中的契约关系理论帮助威廉姆森提炼出交易的三个维度,从而促进了对经济交易的微观分析;行为理论的引入,则产生了"有限理性"和"机会主义"两个重要的人类行为假定。威廉姆森突破了学科间的障碍,将经济学和社会学、组织理论、行为科学、法学等学科有机地结合了起来,使得交易费用论具备了可操作性,解决了交易费用经济学长期存在的"论而不用"的问题。这种"输入型"的跨学科结合是使经济学之树保持长青的方式之一。