In the current age of commercial and financial openness, remote and poor local economies are becoming increasingly exposed to inflows of external capital. The new investors - enjoying lower credit constraints than local dwellers - might play a propulsive role in local development. At the same time, inflows of external capital can have negative impacts on local natural resource-dependent activit...

Payment for ecosystem services programs are being implemented in a wide variety of settings, but whether and in what contexts such programs present ‘win–win’ scenarios that simultaneously improve human wellbeing and achieve conservation goals remains poorly understood. Based on semi-structured interviews with early program participants enrolling either collectivelyor individually-held land, we ...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the correlates of social capital and adherence to healthy lifestyle in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). METHODS This register-based, cross-sectional study consisted of individuals diagnosed with CHD at four community health service centers, Shanghai, China, between April and July 2016 (n=609). The sociodemographic characteristics, social capital, adherence ...

Sustainable development requires economic development without endangering biodiversity, without exploiting natural resources too fast and without excessive pollution. The question is if these aims can be realized at the same time and what are the options for substitution between different types of capital. The difference between the notions of weak and strong sustainability revolves around the ...

Debate about the substitutability of manufactured, natural, human and social capital is at the heart of sustainability theory. Sociology can contribute to this debate by examining the processes and mechanisms by which one form of capital is substituted for another. We examine the substitution among different forms of capitals at China’s Wolong Nature Reserve where the consumption of an importan...

We develop and apply a consistent and comprehensive theoretical framework for assessing whether economic growth is compatible with sustaining wellbeing over time. Our approach differs from earlier approaches by concentrating on wealth rather than income. Sustainability is demonstrated by showing that a properly defined comprehensive measure of wealth is maintained through time. Our wealth measu...

A community’s water supply is one of its most important infrastructures, as sufficient quality and quantity of water are as much prerequisites for human life as economic development. The rapid urbanization predicted for developing countries will cause serious water shortages in densely populated areas. The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) is taking precautions by planning and developing t...

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol has a dual objective: to encourage low-cost emission reduction and to promote sustainable development in the host countries of CDM projects. The CDM has by and large delivered on the first objective but arguably not on the second. This paper assesses quantitatively the form and prevalence of co-benefits in CDM projects. Adopting a broa...

Forest exploitation in British Columbia is currently unsustainable. Economic analysis is frequently used to justify the high rate of cut by documenting the revenue, job and wage benefits of current industrial forestry. However, Hicks’ definition of income implies that it is poor accounting practice to count the consumption of natural capital as income. Yet in BC, economic analysis fails to make...