Sustainability science and the epistemic challenge : some matters philosophical and why we ought to come to know them better

While there would appear to be a general awareness and appreciation of the foundational significance of values to sustainability science, they, along with other philosophical dimensions associated with beliefs and assumptions, rarely seem to make the headlines. With reference to a seminal contribution on macroethical systems that was published in the initial edition of this journal, some of these important matters are explored in the context of worldviews, their nature and their significance

INTERCONNECTEDNESS AND RESILIENCE OF THE U.S. ECONOMY

An economy consists of interconnected sectors which are specialized in producing different products or providing particular services. We study the interconnectedness of the U.S. economy using a network approach, finding that sectors are highly clustered in this "economy network" and play different roles in facilitating the transactions within the economy. When it comes to resilience of the economy as a whole, however, all sectors play different but nontrivial roles by facilitating alternative input–output routes when a crisis occurs in single or multiple sectors. Diversity in sectors' specialties appears to be the truly important characteristic that keeps the economy functional when facing internal and external challenges.Complex network, economic network, input–output, resilience, economy