关于生态经济研究若干问题的初步思索

关于生态经济研究若干问题的初步思索李周（中国生态经济学会）对于关注生态经济问题的人士来说，１９９２年是极不寻常的一年。这一年，在国际上，各国首脑云集巴西首都里约热内卢，共商解决环境问题的行动计划，实现了由拟定环境宣言到制订行动计划的转折；在国内，党的十四大作出了建立社会主义市场经济体制的战略决择，吹响了彻底摈弃传统的社会主义计划经济体制的号角。新的国际与国内形势为生态经济学研究带来了新的机会，也带来了新的课题和新的要求。如果说新形势的基本特征就是从务虚走向务实，那么从务实的角度对中国生态经济学研究的整体水平、生态经济学的走向和当前亟需研究的问题进行探讨，就显得比任何时候更为迫切、更为重要。１如何评价中国生态经济学研究的整体水平在中国，有组织的生态经济学研究已有１０多年的历史了。经过多年的探索，在基本概念的定义和理论框架的构造等方面取得了长足的进步，特别是在宣传、普及生态与经济必须协调发展的思想方面做了大量的工作。大量生态经济学论著的问世，研究重点由保护生态平衡转向维系持续发展，整个民族的生态与环境意识的明显提高，就是反映这些成绩和进步的明显例证。但是从整体上看，中国的生态经济学尚未形成一个较为完整的体系。￣     

全球第一份《生态经济》杂志改版致读(作)者

时代在呼唤，人类在觉醒，从保护生态环境、经济持续发展趋势来看，走生态经济建设之路是世界各国实现可持续发展的惟一选择。 我们“只有一个地球”，“人类共同生存在一个地球上”，即人与自然共处于一个相互依存、相互制约的生物圈中。人类必须尊重自然、保护生物圈内一切非人类自然物，并承认人类社会与生态环境共生协调、和谐发展的宗旨，最终达到生态环境不断优化、自然资源永续利用、社会经济持续发展的理想境界。 党和国家领导人高度重视生态环境保护与经济可持续发展问题。生态环境、生物资源保护与发展经济被列为世界各国的２１世…     

生态经济理论的发展与政治经济学的创新（续）

生态经济理论的发展与政治经济学的创新（续）刘思华（中南财经大学经济研究所）３社会主义政治经济学应该探讨的若干重要生态经济问题无论是生态经济学研究生态经济，还是政治经济学研究生态经济，都是为了揭示当代中国现实的经济规律，使之能够对我国社会主义现代化建设的实际更好做出有力的指导。为此，我们从我国改革和发展的实际出发，政治经济学应该探讨的生态经济问题，至少有以下几个重要方面。３．１　研究中国现代经济发展中经济建设与生态环境的协调发展问题在当代，社会主义政治经济学研究的一个主要任务，就是揭示社会主义国民经济持续、稳定、协调发展的客观规律，及其如何通过我国人民经济活动的具体实践体现出来的。现代经济建设的发展，必须与生态环境的状况相互协调，这是当代经济发展的重要特征。这种特征在中国生态经济系统中也正日益显示出来。它突出表现在只有在生态与经济、社会的协调发展的基础上，才能真正实现国民经济的持续、稳定、协调发展。我国４０多年尤其近１０多年的现代化建设的实践表明，这种协调发展，既包括经济发展，也包括科技、文化、政治、社会的发展；还包括自然生态、环境的发展；并且是经济发展必须同科技、文化、政治、社会、自然生态环境的发展相协调。     

社会主义和谐社会的构建:一种经济学角度的分析

从经济学角度看,一个社会和谐与否,关键在于效率与公平这对矛盾能否合理、科学的解决。西方经济学视野中的“自由市场经济”、“福利国家”和“混合经济结构”都不是真正的和谐社会。社会主义和谐社会是效率与公平和谐统一的社会。要使效率与公平达到和谐统一,关键是协调好社会主义市场经济条件下市场内公平与市场外公平的关系。社会主义和谐社会的构建,一方面需要加快完善社会主义市场经济体制,使社会充满活力和效率;另一方面需要加快建立完善的个人能力培养机制,使社会充满公平和公正。     

也谈中国经济学向何处去

经济学的发展史表明,任何经济理论都是适应一定的社会历史条件而产生的。我们必须从经济体制改革的实践出发适应建立中国特色社会主义市场经济体制的要求,在马克思主义世界观和方法论的指导下,努力探索使社会主义生产关系不断完善的有效途径。同时,借鉴和吸收西方经济学中的有用成果,阐明社会主义市场经济发展的经济规律,形成一整套指导我国改革与经济发展的社会主义市场经济理论体系,以此来构建中国经济学     

学习“三个代表”重要思想全力创新马克思主义资本理论——兼评杨志的专著《论资本的二重性——兼论我国公有资本的本质》

作者认为，马克思主义的资本理论，既是剖析社会生产方式性质、商品经济发育程度，以及市场经济发展趋势的经济学理论，又是揭示社会经济形态演变的唯物史观的基本理论，还是展示认识主体——马克思是如何进行理论创新之著作；尽管如此，《资本论》的理论本身还是不能直接回答：中国特色的社会主义基本经济制度为什么要采取社会主义市场经济体制、中国的公有制经济为什么要采取公有资本的形式，以及这种公有资本到底如何承载和实现公有制本质等问题。而这些问题，应当是中国的理论工作者继社会主义初级阶段理论和社会主义市场经济体制理论的创新之后亟待创新的最重大理论问题。作者认为，由经济科学出版社出版的、由中国人民大学经济学院杨志博士撰写的《论资本的二重性——兼论我国公有资本的本质》，是一本力图对《资本论》的研究进行理解创新和理论创新的著作，是一本多年鲜见的、对科学地研究资本与公有制经济之间内在矛盾及其本质等问题有所启迪的理论著作。     

生态社会主义核心价值观论析

生态社会主义为寻求全球性生态危机的解决之道,通过批判与重构两条路径为人类指出未来社会发展前景,深刻批判资本主义的反生态性、非正义性,主张以民主方式从经济模式、政治体制、社会构建和文化培植多维度构建生态社会主义理想社会,体现生态社会主义对结果平等、公正的终极价值追求。     

生态经济研究前沿国际高层论坛征文通知

<正>人类面临的生态危机日趋严重,全球生态治理的人类共识逐步形成。中国作为发展中的人口、经济总量大国,已经开始按照经济、政治、文化、社会、生态文明"五位一体"的布局发展。全球生态治理背景下的生态经济研究如何进行?这是一个非常值得国际生态经济学界共同探讨的重大前沿问题。为此,中国生态经济学学会将     

生态经济研究前沿国际高层论坛征文通知

<正>人类面临的生态危机日趋严重,全球生态治理的人类共识逐步形成。中国作为发展中的人口、经济总量大国,已经开始按照经济、政治、文化、社会、生态文明"五位一体"的布局发展。全球生态治理背景下的生态经济研究如何进行?这是一个非常值得国际生态经济学界共同探讨的重大前沿问题。为此,中国生态经济学学会将     

生态经济与佛教经济中的生态观比较

当今在主流经济学指导下，人类盲目地发展经济，不顾及自然环境的承载能力，经济学派提出了经济发展的生态观，主要有生态经济学和佛教经济学。生态经济是把生态保护与经济发展相结合，二者相互促进、协调发展的经济形式，首要目标是持续性。佛教经济学把道德引入经济领域，为生态危机提供精神资源，生态问题也为佛教与现代社会的融合开辟了崭新的通道。佛教经济中的生态观是以佛教的缘起论为哲学基础的，整体论和无我论是其基本特征。     

A coevolutionary model for promoting agricultural sustainability

This article presents a coevolutionary model of agricultural development that is based on observations from the environmental history of agriculture and the need for addressing development processes toward sustainability. It asserts that the challenge of agricultural sustainability can be fruitfully addressed within an analytical framework that consciously and explicitly considers agricultural development as consisting of processes of coevolution involving agriculture and the surrounding ecological and socioeconomic systems. Widening the processes to include strong interconnectedness with national and global systems with respect to off-farm resources and farm outputs has led to various agro-ecological problems. Strengthening local interaction and interconnectedness in a rural-urban context is found to be essential for developing a system of sustainable agriculture. Such development requires influencing many subsystems and implementing changes in production methods and land use as short-term responses to the problem, and technological development, resource allocation and changes in values as long-term responses. It also requires some sustainability principles and indicators in order to direct actions and to facilitate communications, which can be derived from the model. Applying the model on Swedish agricultural sustainability during the twentieth century reveals some, probably, important findings for “building” sustainable agriculture and lends support to the usefulness of the model.     

Planting flexibility: Implications for agricultural sustainability

There is a general belief that federal commodity programs restrict adoption of more sustainable production systems. In the 1990 farm legislation, Congress introduced limited planting flexibility to address these concerns and to reduce federal farm program costs. This program estimates the impact of planting flexibility on selected agricultural sustainability indicators and its policy implications. Results show that planting flexibility is a necessary but not sufficient condition for implementing more sustainable production systems. Other factors such as the availability of economically viable alternatives, macroeconomic conditions, and local resource and environmental concerns need to be considered. Policy reforms can help in achieving economic and environmental gains only in locations with economically viable alternatives. In other cases, increased research and development of new systems are needed to achieve desired results.     

Well-being and/or quality of life in EU countries through a multidimensional index of sustainability

The aim of my paper is to demonstrate that Sen's theory of well-being can be applied to make the concept of sustainable human development operational through the building of a multidimensional index of sustainability which takes into account, at the same time, economic, social and environmental variables. This index may be considered an alternative to the current measures of welfare/sustainability since not only conventional measures such as GDP, but also multi-attribute indices, such as Human Development Index (HDI), Genuine Savings, Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) etc., are found to be inadequate to make the concept of sustainable development operational. Therefore, the limitations of these measures of welfare/sustainability justify the search for a new index of sustainability. This index will show, at the operational level, how Sen's theory of well-being can be useful to sustainable development. It was applied to EU countries using the standardised deviation methodology being the closest and most suitable methodology to be adopted for building multidimensional indices. The factor analysis methodology will also be used in my paper. Lastly, the comparison between Sen's trend of sustainability and GDP trend index number-which are both of them applied to Italy-will show how much the criticisms and the limitations directed towards the indicator of GDP are founded.     

Incentivizing sustainable waste management

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the integration of economic and non-economic concepts of waste management and sustainability to achieve new insights to sustainable waste management. Since landfilling will continue to be a significant waste management method, our theory and practice of sustainable waste management should focus upon incentivizing the development of more sustainable landfills. The model sheds light on the design of efficient and fair landfill siting processes; how production inputs to bioreactor landfilling should be selected; and how management practices during the facility's operation phase can achieve greater economic, ecological and social sustainability.     

Another strategy to assess sustainable development

The goal of sustainoble development is to preserve sustainabitity trod simultaneously prevent catastrophe in a man-land .system. However, almost all the existing approaches to assessing sustainable development are to measure the sustainability. namely appraise from the obverse side of the sustainable development. So it seems necessary to attack the same task on the reverse, namely to measure the passibility of eatostrophe. In this paper, with a case study of Tianjin, China. we employ catastrophe theory and models to integrate Tianjin＇s sustainable development indicators, and then deduce the catastrophe risk index （ CRI） to present the level of catastrophic possibility in the city. Applying catastrophe theory, is a new strategy to assess sustainable development and shows great practical significance, especially for those developing regions or countries, who always give more priority to their economy and therefore have more obligation to make sure whether their social economic activities might bring forth any ecological environment catastrophe. Besides, being both qualitative and quantitative, the approach could be employed to explore not only static characteristics bat also dynamic mechanism of man-land system. Although our work is only a maiden attempt and still calls for further effort to improve it, the case study of Tianjin in this paper would assure as the great promising future to apply, catastrophe theory to sustoinable devetopment modeling,     

Policy assessment and simulation of actor orientation for sustainable development

Understanding, assessing, and simulating behavior requires knowledge of the precepts that are explicitly or implicitly orienting behavior. Human actors can be viewed as (conscious) self-organizing systems attempting to remain viable in a diverse environment containing other self-organizing systems (other human actors, organisms, ecosystems, etc.), all driven by their own viability (sustainability) interests. These fundamental system interests, or basic orientors, have emerged in response to general environmental properties and are therefore identical across self-organizing systems: existence, effectiveness, freedom of action, security, adaptability, coexistence. Even in simulated actors learning to ‘survive’ in a difficult environment, the basic orientors emerge in the (simulated) evolutionary process — but different actors may evolve into different ‘cultural types’ with different orientor emphasis. Since balanced attention to all basic orientors is crucial for viability, the set of orientors can be used to derive indicators that facilitate comprehensive viability and sustainability assessments. The paper outlines the theoretical approach of ‘orientation theory’ and its application to the assessment and simulation of sustainable development issues. The formal approach of mapping indicators on basic orientors and assessing sustainability dynamics is illustrated using Worldwatch indicator time series. In an actor simulation this approach is used to successfully guide a small global model onto a sustainable path with high ‘quality of life’.     

Sustainability,Optimality, and Development Policy

Considering sustainability a matter of intergenerational welfare equity, this paper examines whether an optimal development path can also be sustainable. It argues that the general “zero‐net‐aggregate‐investment” condition for an optimal development path to be sustainable in the sense of the maximin criterion of intergenerational justice is too demanding to be practical, especially in the context of developing countries. It further argues that while the maximin criterion of sustainability may be appealing to the rich advanced industrial countries, for the poor developing countries it implies equalization of poverty across generations, and as such is too costly a moral obligation to be acceptable. The paper suggests that a compromise development policy that follows the optimal growth approach but adopts certain measures to mitigate both the intergenerational and intragenerational welfare inequalities may be more appropriate for these countries. Some of the principal elements of such a policy are highlighted.     

Conceptual niche management of grassroots innovation for sustainability: The case of body disposal practices in the UK

The grassroots has recently been identified as an alternative site for the development of innovations that may contribute to shifts towards more sustainable systems of consumption and production. While the characteristics of these innovations have been elaborated, it remains unclear how these alternative ideas and practices can be purposively supported to populate incumbent systems. This is especially so in light of the difficulty the grassroots face in connecting forcefully with the mainstream.This article will address this issue by outlining an adaptation of conceptual niche management - an approach that focuses on the embedding of guiding principles used to fulfill basic societal needs - that is sensitive to grassroots innovation. The framework will be applied to the current UK body disposal system to illustrate how such transformative sustainability ideas may be capitalised on.     

可持续发展能力空间结构研究的理论问题探讨

“可持续发展”与“可持续发展能力”的差异是我们经常忽略的。但一旦说到“能力”,由于可持续发展在人们心目中是一个极其复杂的系统,所以就要把经济、社会和生态与环境三个系统的能力都包括进去,于是就有了虽然可以避免偏颇但却日显庞大的用于测度的指标体系。文章认为,从哲学上看,地理环境如果离开人类的发展就没有其存在和对其进行研究的意义,经济系统的能力在三个系统中是最基本的,而经济系统的能力可以被看作为了实现可持续发展所要求的“支付能力”。根据环境经济学的原理,这个支付能力只能是政府提供“公共物品”的能力,文章进一步认为,政府的财政能力又是最基本的。在明确这个基本原理后,就可以使测度变得更容易,一是克服一个大的指标体系中本来不相关的指标的叠加,二是使其简便,三是使政策成为必然——哪些地方缺少能力和哪些地方能力相对剩余和政府应该怎样去配置能力。这就是能力的空间结构和促进空间关系发展的区域政策。