Overall, modern ecological economics is, in many
ways, a success story about the establishment of a new
scientific field.6 However, it is also a vulnerable
success, and it is far from obvious that the field will
survive the turbulence and the shifting priorities in
academia. Other reputational organizations are competing
for different groups of researchers who now
form part of ecological economics, and the inner
tensions of the field can undermine the present
strength. One risk is that the field becomes uninteresting
as a field, if identity is lost by the acceptance
of anything as being justified because of transdisciplinarity.
Some common ground is necessary to
have interesting communication and to learn from
each other. Another risk (others would call it a
chance) is that the field loses its bite and becomes a
sub-field of neoclassical environmental and resource
economics modelling links between ecosystems and
the economy. In my opinion, both would be a pity.
The present geographical spread of ecological economics
opens possibilities for getting wider support
for the core beliefs of the field, and to meet this
challenge some common ground as well as independence
from neoclassical economics will be necessary.