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Poorer without It? The Neglected Role of the Natural Environment in Poverty and Wellbeing

Schleicher, Judith; Schaafsma, Marije; Burgess, Neil D.; Sandbrook, Chris; Danks, Fiona; Cowie, Chris; Vira, Bhaskar

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Authors

Judith Schleicher

Marije Schaafsma

Neil D. Burgess

Chris Sandbrook

Fiona Danks

Bhaskar Vira



Abstract

The relationship between sustainable development’s prime goal, human wellbeing, and the natural environment has been narrowly conceived. This paper focuses on the possibility and the implications of treating the natural environment as a ‘constituent’, or internal element, of the concepts of wellbeing and poverty, as opposed to a ‘determinant’, or instrumental, external factor. Our review of philosophical accounts and conceptual frameworks of wellbeing and poverty suggests that treating the environment as a constituent element is philosophically sound, conceptually robust and empirically grounded. We argue that failing to consider these missing environmental aspects can result in an incomplete capturing of the multiple dimensions of wellbeing and poverty, and their underlying drivers. This broader framing of the environment– wellbeing relationship has the potential to inform a new generation of individual level wellbeing and poverty indicators, creating measures of multidimensional poverty that reflect the broadened scope ambitiously articulated in the Sustainable Development Goals.

Citation

Schleicher, J., Schaafsma, M., Burgess, N. D., Sandbrook, C., Danks, F., Cowie, C., & Vira, B. (2018). Poorer without It? The Neglected Role of the Natural Environment in Poverty and Wellbeing. Sustainable Development, 26(1), 83-98. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1692

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 5, 2017
Online Publication Date Aug 1, 2017
Publication Date Jan 1, 2018
Deposit Date Sep 6, 2017
Publicly Available Date Oct 16, 2017
Journal Sustainable Development
Print ISSN 0968-0802
Electronic ISSN 1099-1719
Publisher ERP Environment
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 26
Issue 1
Pages 83-98
DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1692
Related Public URLs https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/265933?show=full

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version © 2017 The Authors. Sustainable Development published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.





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