Sustainability indicators, policy and governance: issues for ecological economics

Abstract

Ecological economics is a major forum for discussion of theoretical and analytical aspects of measuring sustainability. The role of sustainability indicators as an evaluation method for sustainability within the emerging context of governance merits further analysis. Focusing on policy processes surrounding the production of sustainability indicators, this paper addresses two questions: what is the potential utility of indicators for policy; and in what ways can indicators influence governance? The former is addressed by exploring three disciplines with long histories of indicator application: public administration studies, urban studies and environmental sciences. The latter is addressed by distilling key perspectives from public policy literature on knowledge utilisation and policy learning, which become the foundation for clarifying the notion of policy-resonant indicators. This clarification is achieved by canvassing the spectrum of the influences on indicators and the mechanisms of their resonance in policy processes. The final section of the paper brings these arguments together by exploring two major insights in terms of challenges for ecological economics: strengthening indicator theory and practice by addressing four key ingredients; and mobilisation of indicators through their active use within the context of governance.