Summary
The main interest of this paper is to discuss how the social dimension appears in Green Chemistry (GC) research, and reflect on how education can contribute to a more complex and systemic vision of what sustainability is, and the role of chemistry in achieving it. Moreover, this paper criticizes the additive nature of green chemistry (GC) not being supportive of systems thinking to achieve holism in its practices.
First, the definition, limits and assessment of social sustainability is discussed. Promoting sustainability is a complex problem, and social sustainability is perhaps its most difficult tenet to be promoted and analyzed.
Next, there is analysis on how social participation in scientific endeavors is possible and why it should be done. Chemistry produces materials, interferes with the world, engages in problem-solving, reviews its practices, as well as theoretically investigates the world. The intention or desire to practice Sustainability of chemistry is not exclusive to scientists; it may be a collective desire of society. Through well-known examples, the necessity of discussion with the population on which risks they consider acceptable or intolerable in a given context, if the action should prioritize speed in results or low costs (efficiency issues), especially taking into account the people who will be directly impacted, is supported.
The authors investigated 37 papers regarding the role of society in the relationship between GC and sustainability. Those publications were fully read, their mentions of the social dimension of sustainability were extracted and analyzed regarding the role of society in GC practices, either in the definition of the research agenda, the development of the research and its regulation, or in the impacts imposed on society. The issues examined were related to how societal questions influenced the motivations and grounded the problems addressed in the research, as well as how the papers approached social participation in GC, either by political means or participatory decision-making. The results of this research are presented, and a number of problems, regarding the relationship between GC and social sustainability, are identified by the authors.
Furthermore, some contributions of chemistry education to address these problems and pursue sustainability are discussed. Four interconnected dimensions may be proposed to involve system thinking in Chemistry:
• Ontological: chemical theories of description and explanation of reality;
• Technological: procedures of transformation and synthesis-intervention in reality;
•Epistemological: philosophical and sociological perspectives on the production of the chemical knowledge of reality; and
• Ethical: the role of chemistry in society
These dimensions demonstrate the social character of GC, being embedded in the broad context of sustainability, and are the requirements for a reflexive education. The authors provide a table containing current problems of green chemistry (GC) to address social sustainability (SS) and the respective educational guidelines and chemical thinking (CT) dimensions.
The authors conclude through their analysis that the social dimension is reduced and never explicitly elaborated in GC. Technological optimism guides GC actions and underlies the belief that the environment and the economy are compatible and they can produce direct and indirect benefits to society (which are not explicitly clarified).
Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
This paper deals with system thinking and sustainability. This research points out how GC has ignored social sustainability in its discourses, practices, and evaluations, leading to a reductionist interpretation of sustainability. This paper presents some challenges to be overcome in order to achieve balanced sustainability and discusses how chemistry education can help to promote sustainability in a broad and systemic way.
