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Volume 14
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Article

The Evolution of Sustainability Ideas in China from 1946 to 2015, Quantified by Culturomics

by
Danqing Zhang
1,2,
Guowen Huang
1,3,*,
Jiaen Zhang
4,*,
Xiaoyu Hou
5,
Tianyi Zhou
5,
Xianyuan Chang
5,
Ying Ge
5 and
Jie Chang
5
1
School of Foreign Studies, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
2
Quality Education Center, Zhongshan Polytechnic, Zhongshan 528400, China
3
Center for Ecolinguistics, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
4
Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, College of Natural Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
5
College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2022, 14(10), 6038; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14106038
Submission received: 11 February 2022 / Revised: 9 May 2022 / Accepted: 13 May 2022 / Published: 16 May 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Transition and Circular Economy)
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Abstract

Economy and ecology are two main aspects of human sustainable development. However, a comprehensive analysis of the status and trends of economic and ecological cognition is still lacking. Here, we defined economic and ecological concepts as cultural traits that constitute a complex system representing sustainability ideas. Adopting a linguistic ecology perspective, we analysed the frequency distribution, turnover and innovation rates of 3713 concepts appearing in China’s mainstream newspaper, People’s Daily, from 1946 to 2015. Results reveal that: (1) In the whole historical period, there were more economic concepts than ecological concepts both in amount and category. Economic concepts experienced stronger cultural drift than ecological concepts tested by the neutral model of cultural evolution; (2) popular economic concepts became more diversified, but popular ecological concepts became more uniform; (3) both economic concepts and ecological concepts attained more variation in their own disciplinary domains than in cross-disciplinary domains; and (4) as a platform of both giving information and opinion, a newspaper is subjected to cultural selection, especially reflected in the change in ecological concepts under the context of Chinese ecological civilization construction. We concluded with a discussion of promoting vibrant and resilient ecological knowledge in fostering sustainability activities and behaviours.
Keywords: cultural evolution; linguistic ecology; neutral model; selection and drift; economic concepts; ecological concepts cultural evolution; linguistic ecology; neutral model; selection and drift; economic concepts; ecological concepts

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MDPI and ACS Style

Zhang, D.; Huang, G.; Zhang, J.; Hou, X.; Zhou, T.; Chang, X.; Ge, Y.; Chang, J. The Evolution of Sustainability Ideas in China from 1946 to 2015, Quantified by Culturomics. Sustainability 2022, 14, 6038. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14106038

AMA Style

Zhang D, Huang G, Zhang J, Hou X, Zhou T, Chang X, Ge Y, Chang J. The Evolution of Sustainability Ideas in China from 1946 to 2015, Quantified by Culturomics. Sustainability. 2022; 14(10):6038. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14106038

Chicago/Turabian Style

Zhang, Danqing, Guowen Huang, Jiaen Zhang, Xiaoyu Hou, Tianyi Zhou, Xianyuan Chang, Ying Ge, and Jie Chang. 2022. "The Evolution of Sustainability Ideas in China from 1946 to 2015, Quantified by Culturomics" Sustainability 14, no. 10: 6038. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14106038

APA Style

Zhang, D., Huang, G., Zhang, J., Hou, X., Zhou, T., Chang, X., Ge, Y., & Chang, J. (2022). The Evolution of Sustainability Ideas in China from 1946 to 2015, Quantified by Culturomics. Sustainability, 14(10), 6038. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14106038

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