You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows (Bob Dylan).
Or do you? Seasons change, so do thoughts, deeds, ideas. Thought leaders—and cheerleaders—rediscover themselves, and turn old notions on their heads. New buzzwords get coined, new coalitions emerge. Chimney smoke does not symbolize progress any more. Economists broaden their horizons and orthodox academic traditions face challenges by the hour. Ecological economics is one of those, stemming from the realization that ecological goods and services must enter the mainstream of economic thinking or be condemned to the periphery of thought for good. The greening of the dismal discipline must augur well for the lonely planet.
The International Society of Ecological Economics (ISEE) was perhaps a logical corollary of the greening process. Set up in 1989, ISEE has emerged as a meeting point of some of the world’s leading ecologists, economists and social scientists, all eager to transgress their disciplinary boundaries.
The biennial conferences of ISEE have attained pilgrimage status. The 2006 New Delhi event, comprising numerous symposia and parallel sessions, carried the pregnant byline ‘Ecological Sustainability and Human Well-being’.