View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Diposit Digital de Documents de la UAB Sustainability 2010, 2, 3399-3417; doi:10.3390/su2113399 OPEN ACCESS sustainability ISSN 2071-1050 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Article Deliberative Ecological Economics for Sustainability Governance Christos Zografos 1,* and Richard B. Howarth 2 1 Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, ETSE QC/3107, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain 2 Environmental Studies Program, Dartmouth College, HB 6182, 113 Steele Hall, Hanover, NH 03755, USA; E-Mail:
[email protected] * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail:
[email protected]; Tel.: +34-93-586-8260; Fax: +34-93-581-3331. Received: 29 June 2010; in revised form: 26 October 2010 / Accepted: 27 October 2010 / Published: 29 October 2010 Abstract: We discuss the recent emergence of ‗deliberative ecological economics‘, a field that highlights the potential of deliberation for improving environmental governance. We locate the emergence of this literature in the long concern in ecological economics over the policy implications of limited views of human action and its encounter with deliberative democracy scholarship and the model of communicative rationality as an alternative to utilitarianism. Considering criticisms over methods used and the focus of research in deliberative decision-making, we put forward a research agenda for deliberative ecological economics. Given the promising potential of deliberative processes for improving the effectiveness and legitimacy of environmental decision-making, work in this area could help advance both theory and practice in environmental governance. Keywords: sustainability governance; preference formation; deliberative democracy; environmental decision-making; ecological economics 1.