The Problematic of Transdisciplinary Sustainability Sciences

Sustainable Development (SD) finds its discursive breakthrough in 1987 through the final report of the Brundtland Commission, Our Common Future (Vanhulst/Beling 2014; Sneddorn et al. 2006). The Brundtland report substantially conveys the regulative specification of a worldwide social and ecological national economic development, justified by the possibility of equal opportunities also for future generations (intergenerational justice). In addition, this development should be designed in such a way that equal access to resources for all living people is possible (intragenerational justice) (Hauff 1987; Dingler 2003). Reactions to the report reveal the nature of its global regulatory appeal, because intraand inter-generational justice can only be defined according to political values (Vanhulst/Beling 2014; Grunwald 2011). In 2015, the United Nations set the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), differentiating and equating SD explicitly with peace and security, natural and cultural diversity, democracy, eradicating poverty, as well as equal rights and opportunities for women and men (SDGs 2015). SD simultaneously tends to be shaped by a hegemonic discourse of SD (Hajer 1995; Höhler/Luks 2004; Brown 2016; Vanhulst/Zaccai 2016; Albán/Rosero 2016)1 that ultimately