Sustainability 2013, 5, 3615-3639; doi:10.3390/su5093615 OPEN ACCESS sustainability ISSN 2071-1050 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Article An Analysis of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20) Discourse Using an Ability Expectation Lens Jacqueline Noga 1 and Gregor Wolbring 2,* 1 Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary T2N 4N1, Alberta, Canada; E-Mail:
[email protected] 2 Faculty of Medicine, Department Community Health Sciences, Stream of Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary T2N 4N1, Alberta, Canada * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail:
[email protected]; Tel.: +1-403-210-7083. Fax: +1-403-220-6494. Received: 11 July 2013; in revised form: 16 August 2013 / Accepted: 16 August 2013 / Published: 22 August 2013 Abstract: The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20) was hosted in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from June 20–22, 2012, 20 years after the first Earth Summit, with the intention of creating solutions to current global environmental issues. In this paper we present the results of an analysis of academic and newspaper articles that covered the Rio +20 summit, using an ability expectation lens. Articles were collected from academic databases such as EBSCO, as well as from newspapers such as the Globe and Mail (Canada) and China Daily; the articles collected were coded for ability expectations using an extensive list of codes which has been designed to identify ability expectations. Analysis of the discourse has revealed a number of ability expectations, such as the ability to produce and consume, the ability to work, and the ability to control.