We scarcely need more evidence in support of the claim that sustainable development is one of the major challenges for human societies in the 21st century. Global warming, growing scarcity of non-renewable energy resources, loss of biodiversity, water supply shortages and the long-term degradation of ecosystems along with health and poverty problems are among the most important issues representing growing risks for human societies and their economies.

In view of such developments, sciences in the field of sustainability are expected – in addition to the traditional scientific tasks of understanding and explaining the situation in question – to contribute analytically to the process of moving societies towards sustainable development.

Following the outstanding success of the 1st International Sustainability Conference ISC 2005 in Basel, the organisers – the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland and the University of Basel – are organising a follow-up conference. The theme of this 2nd International Sustainability Conference is "Creating Values for Sustainable Development". From a socio-economic perspective we take this to be one of the major tasks and challenges with regard to the expected societal transformation processes toward sustainability.

The ISC 2008 provides a platform for both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary oriented social scientists working in the field of sustainable development. The conference is committed to promoting dialogue, especially among economists and other social scientists. Moreover, the conference aims to act as a meeting point for committed individuals from the political, corporate and academic worlds as well as for representatives from civil society.

We are therefore delighted to invite you to attend the ISC 2008 in Basel. We look forward to offering researchers a platform for presenting papers and for exchanging and critically discussing new knowledge stemming from socio-economic oriented research on practical and theoretical issues in the domain of sustainable development.