2017 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Indigenous environmental worldviews, ethics and environmental sustainability: the critical connections
| Project/Area Number |
17K00687
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| Research Institution | Keio University |
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Principal Investigator |
Choy YeeKeong 慶應義塾大学, 経済学部(三田), 訪問研究員 (30750418)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
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| Keywords | United Nations / Stockholm Conference / Environmental depletion / Environmental ethics / Indigenous worldviews |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The main purpose of the proposed research is to deepen our understanding on the indigenous environmental worldviews and their implications for global environmental sustainability. The initial part of the research ventured into an in-depth assessment on the United Nations efforts in promoting environmental sustainable development for the past 45 years since the Stockholm Conference held in 1972. It made a vigorous case for an expansive investigation on the connections between the United Nations international environmental agreements, declarations and treaties, and the institutional capacity in enhancing sustainable environmental management.This is to lay the conceptual foundation for the analysis that follows in the subsequent research period. The assessment revealed that despite decades of international environmental efforts, a new world order of environmental sustainable development has yet to emerge . Part of these findings have either been presented in various international conferences or published as a book chapter.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
1: Research has progressed more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The initial part of the research successfully laid the solid foundation for the next stage of analysis embracing an interdisciplinary assessment which offers a powerful way to explain the paradoxical position between global environmental treaties/agreements and environmental sustainability. This provides an important vantage point to venture into a new analytical focus on the connection between environmental philosophy/ethics and environmental sustainability. This thematic topic has been brought forward and preliminarily examined with its exploratory findings presented at various international conferences. This adds further insights into the whole intellectual structure of the research plan and provides the basic foundation for a more vigorous study on the ethical-environmental link.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The research will make a case for an expansive investigation on human-nature interactions, environmental moral beliefs and environmental value orientations in the context of environmental ethics. It will critically examine the vast scholarly literature and theoretical disputes on various schools of environmental philosophical thought. Its aim is to come out with a more tenable philosophical basis and an environmentally benign worldview for our engagement with the environmental problems confronting us today. In order to develop a more unified approach in this thematic inquiry, the research will move its focus for an extended examination and analysis on the emotional ties between the indigenous cultural norms and environmental ethics based on actual field research.
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