Sustainability Theory and Conceptual Considerations: A Review of Key Ideas for Sustainability, and the Rural Context

Sustainability and sustainable development have become important concepts and goals across science and society. Sustainability, connected to desirable long-term conditions, is an inherently applied pursuit in geography and other fields. An integrative statement of essential concepts on which sustainability studies and applications are being built has been lacking, however. Based on the literature, a number of key ideas or theoretical concepts are discussed here, including the importance of choice, place, scale, systems, limits, change, connected concepts, and the identity of sustainability. The rural context is used to present examples illustrating key ideas for sustainability, but the concepts apply broadly to applications and research related to improving the directions of environmental and social changes within local, regional, and global systems under the influence of human actions.