ABSTRACT

Policy goals regarding many environmental topics have undergone a shift in recent decades, from environmental protection and elimination of hazards to the enhancement of sustainability. Yet the concept of sustainability is critiqued for its vague definitions, playing host to competing value systems that are often poorly articulated. In parallel, the field of psychology has experienced a broadening of focus from psychopathologies to positive psychology, with its emphasis on enhancing psychological wellbeing. Using a framework of categories for positive psychology, we conceptualize changes in sustainability policy as a ‘positive orientation’ in environmental policy. Examples from various areas of environmental policy illustrate the differences in approach that have already taken place. The framework is then used to reconceptualize familiar tensions in sustainability policy, such as the need to articulate localized rather than globalized goals and the risks of greenwash, as outcomes of an uncritically positive approach. From a practical perspective, the positive orientation framework can encourage policy-makers to contextualize environmental issues within a broader system and thus ensure a holistic, indirectly and directly positive, policy response for the benefit of human and planetary wellbeing.

摘要

近几十年来，许多环境主题的政策目标发生了转变，从环境保护和消除危害到增强可持续性。然而，可持续发展的概念因其模糊的定义而受到批评，它承载着往往表达不清的相互竞争的价值体系。与此同时，心理学领域经历了从精神病理学到积极心理学的广泛关注，其重点是增强心理健康。使用积极心理学的类别框架，我们将可持续性政策的变化概念化为环境政策的“积极导向”。环境政策各个领域的例子说明了已经采取的方法的差异。然后，该框架用于重新定义可持续性政策中熟悉的紧张关系，例如需要阐明本地化而非全球化的目标以及漂绿的风险，作为不加批判的积极方法的结果。从实践的角度来看，积极导向框架可以鼓励政策制定者在更广泛的系统内将环境问题置于背景下，从而确保整体、间接和直接积极的政策响应，以造福人类和地球福祉。