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Journal Article

Keeping humans at the heart of sustainability

Lars Dietrich
Sustainability Science · 2026

Abstract

Sustainability is not a fact to be read off from ecosystems, but an evaluative framework shaped by human judgements about what should be sustained, for whom, and at what cost. Posthuman and more-than-human approaches, which seek to decentre the human by foregrounding ecological interdependence and the agency of nonhuman actors, offer an important corrective to crude anthropocentrism, but they risk obscuring human normative agency when decentring the human is treated as sustainability’s self-evident direction. This commentary argues that sustainability cannot and should not escape its human normative centre, and proposes ecologically informed humanism, a position that keeps this centre explicit while holding it ethically, politically, and ecologically accountable. Implications follow for sustainability research, governance, and education.

Bibliographic Information

JournalSustainability Science
PublisherSpringer
Publication Date2026-09-01
Publication Year2026
Document TypeJournal Article
Print ISSN1862-4065
eISSN1862-4057
DOI10.1007/s11625-026-01886-w

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NARA Access Coverage2006-01-01~Current
Journal Homepagehttps://www.springer.com/journal/11625
Publisher PageOpen Publisher Page
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