Services allows us to satisfy some of our basic needs, for instance education, health care, and communication. Services are fundamental part of our socioeconomic metabolism (SEM) and sustainable development. Yet, the role... [ view full abstract ]
Services allows us to satisfy some of our basic needs, for instance education, health care, and communication. Services are fundamental part of our socioeconomic metabolism (SEM) and sustainable development. Yet, the role that services play in our SEM, in terms of the demand, use, disposal, and accumulation of resources in the anthroposphere, has remained largely unexplored. For the most part, SEM studies take either an economy-wide approach or a product/infrastructure process-based approach. These approaches are useful in the study of major resources at a national level, or at the level of specific infrastructures, materials and energy cycles throughout the anthroposphere. However, the approaches fail to acknowledge the role of services on resources. While the fields of economics (e.g. human capital and education economics) and demographics (e.g. human capital formation) have been concerned with the study of services. These do not deal with environmental resources implications. Here we present an approach for the study of services and their role in the anthroposphere under a SEM framework, which integrates principles from demographics, economics, and stock-and-flow dynamics. We define a service as a system composed of (i) two demographic stock-elements, demanders and providers, (ii) an infrastructure stock-element, (iii) their links, and (iv) their associated human, infrastructure, material and energy flows. Hence, the planning for the sustainability and optimal provision of services rely on the adequate understanding of their drivers and the stocks-and-flows’ dynamics in the system. We use the case of kindergarten education in Norway to illustrate the principles and applicability of the approach. We analyse the situation of the system in 2013 and forecast the evolution of the stocks and some flows towards 2040 with the assistance of a quasi-stationary model. If present national students-to-teacher and area-to-student ratios remain at present levels, the number of students, teachers and square meters are expected to increase by 11.8%, 11.4% and 11.5% respectively in the year 2040 - under a medium-growth demographic scenario. Satisfying these teaching requirements imply that at least 4,705 new teachers and 197,962 new kindergarten-square-meters would be needed. The findings press for opportune planning and action at the policy, academy, and construction levels to prepare for this coming demand, not only at the national and but also at the regional scale. This paper presents a first approximation towards the study and modelling of services under a SEM paradigm. The method can be used for the design and evaluation of policies related to the fourth sustainable development goal, in relation to inclusive and equitable quality education. Other applications are also foreseen in issues connected to health, employment, information technology, and innovation and research.
Keywords: Services, socio-economic metabolism SEM, education, kindergartens, Norway
1a Sustainable development science: fundamental concepts (definitions, fundamental concept
