Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna, Austria

Editing team: Heidi Dumreicher, Richard Trappl, Xia Hongwei, R.S. Levine

see more WP E

Objectives of the Thesaurus

The objective of the thesaurus is an approach to the semantic field of „sustainability“ within the intercultural context of „China and the West“. The linguistic terminology and its cultural connotations in Chinese and English concerning „sustainability“ and related terms and concepts shall be collected, analysed in their contexts along with a documentation of the sources and be interpreted against horizons of language, cultural history, philosophy, as well as social, political, economic and technical aspects. Given that dictionaries – as essential they are - provide only limited insight in the correlation of semantic fields and concepts between languages, the aim of this study is a contribution towards a more profound and differentiated understanding of terms and concepts referring to „sustainability“ in the intercultural process between China and the West.

Description

In order to obtain sufficient material various (primarily written) Chinese sources (in Chinese and English language) will be collected: monographs, periodicals, newspapers, print and electronic media etc. Their range should cover politics, economics, technology, philosophy, sociology etc.. The collection should be done in co-operation with academic, administrative and commercial organisations and individuals in China and in the West.

Based on a theoretical (primarily linguistic and cultural) framework, the analyses of the occurrences of the terms and their contexts shall be carried out. The aim is a collection of essential terms related to the semantic field of „sustainability“, enriched with explanations and interpretative derivations.

Besides collecting and analysing the above described material implicit traces the "concept" of "sustainability" will be searched for in classical Chinese sources , such as works of philosophy, literature etc.

Aims of the thesaurus

The aim of the Thesaurus is twofold:

It should be an interface to the scientific community of sustainability research outside SUCCESS project.

It should serve defining and understanding the concept of "sustainability"

It should help making complex issues more transparent and understandable in intercultural discourse.

It serves within the SUCCESS project as a terminological tool for all participants involved.

The thesaurus has a privileged position in SUCCESS and supports sustainability as the corporate identity of the SUCCESS project.

The thesaurus is a tool helping to give form and shape to the term. It should establish quality assurance and mutual understanding of the terminology between East and West, between the Chinese and Euro-American point of view. It is developed along the time-vector of the project SUCCESS: the thesaurus modifies the project and the project is modified by the thesaurus. It is a "market-place" for the exchange of ideas and a tool for communication – face to face as well as by internet-communication It gives a theoretical background (national and international – past, present and future) to the SUCCESS research process, provides empirical data and clarifies the theory of sustainability

• within the research-group SUCCESS
• vis-a-vis or with others: It shows what distinguishes SUCCESS from other sustainability projects It is something like the soul of the SUCCESS project. It is an important structure for interdisciplinary work (we could use „Backward engineering“ – who will need and use it?) It presents the State of the art of sustainability discussion It presents a hierarchy of privileged frames by comparing other definitions in comparison with the SUCCESS synthesised definition.

Tool for communication

The Thesaurus should contribute towards the development of a common language within SUCCESS, especially between the different disciplines. It is a tool for discourse and contributes to mutual understanding and is a basis for discussion among European and Chinese experts. It should help to straight-line the discussion of definitions and to facilitate a sort of convergence of understanding concerning the meanings and implications of "sustainability". It is supportive for all relevant translation work of SUCCESS.

It gets inputs from all workpackages, has an integrative function among scientists and experts and thereby supports the approach to find syntheses within the SUCCESS project. It also supports the documentation of the progress of the project.

Usefulness to the participants:

The thesaurus is an integrative tool. Every participant should know why the thesaurus is useful to her or his research. It contributes to the „Table“ ("shu xia" – "Under the tree") "Governance process".

The thesaurus defines

Importance to SUCCESS and co-ordination with the lifetime of the project: The thesaurus will develop common definitions of the basic terms for the pattern- and scenario-building work. This needs to take place at the beginning of the research-process.

Motivation: The thesaurus is a valuable tool for the participants. Inner reward for WP: getting new perspectives in looking at specific cases Outer reward for WP: opening the view to the other disciplines, workpackages and approaches

Structure of the thesaurus:

Part 1: Definitions

Part 2: Semantic fields of sustainability

check out The Mindmap of the Semantic Field of Sustainability test version

This part follows the structure of the SUCCESS research The question of etymology?

Part 3: Dictionary: Alphabetic register in English and Chinese