Integrating social theory and sustainability

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Sustainability can mean many things. Most basically, it means the capacity of something or some practice to be sustained, or to be continued in its present form indefinitely into the future. In the recent political and social climate, however, it has come to refer to the capacity of mankind to continue its current social and economic practices in the face of anthropogenic environmental impact. But even within this context are many definitions and interpretations of definitions. The term is often coupled with other qualifying terms, as in the case of social sustainability, sustainable agriculture, or sustainable growth or yield in economics. However, the most common usages of the term are in environmental sustainability and sustainable development, different but related terms that attempt to describe a better way of interacting with the environment. Environmental sustainability and sustainable development are often used interchangeably, but this practice is misleading because they do have separate meanings. Environmental problems have been the central impetus for the rise of the concept of sustainability in current world issues, and environmental sustainability is a movement which seeks to reduce the impact of a human practice on environmental and ecological systems that support us. Sustainable development applies the ideas of environmental sustainability to economic growth and development, fitting ideas for change in human action for the benefit of environmental health into the economic growth paradigm promoted by capitalism. Sisay Asefa (2005) describes sustainable development as similar to traditional economic growth and development, only with the addition of natural resources as a form of natural capital