Understanding the Social Dimension of Sustainability

Jesse Dillard, Veronica Dujon, Mary C. King, Jesse Dillard, Veronica Dujon, Mary C. King

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781135924928
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economia
• Subtopic: Sviluppo sostenibile

The imperative of the twenty-first century is sustainability: to raise the living standards of the world's poor and to achieve and maintain high levels of social health among the affluent nations while simultaneously reducing and reversing the environmental damage wrought by human activity. Scholars and practitioners are making progress toward environmental and economic sustainability, but we have very little understanding of the social dimension of sustainability.

This volume is an ambitious, multi-disciplinary effort to identify the key elements of social sustainability through an examination of what motivates its pursuit and the conditions that promote or detract from its achievement. Included are theoretical and empirical pieces; examination of international and local efforts; discussions highlighting experiences in both the developing and industrialized nations; and a substantial focus on business practices. Contributors are grounded in sociology, economics, business administration, public administration, public health, geography, education and natural resource management.

1
Introduction

Jesse Dillard, Veronica Dujon, and Mary C. King

At this moment, we humans are caught between the twin imperatives to raise the living standards of the world’s poor, partially captured in the Millenium Development Goals, and to live within environmental limits, exemplified by the current concern over global warming. The challenge of sustainability is to limit the environmental harm created by human activity while reducing the deprivation and suffering resulting from poverty as well as excess.

Recent years have witnessed increasing international attention to sustainability issues and, in response, a substantial upsurge in business, governmental, and nongovernmental organization engagement in social responsibility initiatives, programs, and policies. What was often regarded as a largely peripheral issue has now become a mainstream concern for many in practical affairs and within the academy. The necessity of community involvement in environmental efforts reflects the dawning realization that social sustainability is the only bedrock on which meaningful environmental sustainability can be grounded. It is within the social sphere that people design institutions that not only facilitate relationally based needs, but also construct their understanding of the natural world.

This expansion and mainstreaming of civic, governmental, and managerial interest in social sustainability has been reflected in a growing number of undergraduate and postgraduate business and management courses, which now include elements of social sustainability in their curriculum, although the area has not yet crystallized to the point that it is so labeled. This process takes place as disciplines such as economics, sociology, public administration, and business begin to consider the interrelatedness of the social with the environmental. Also, the traditional environmental disciplines such as engineering, applied sciences, and agriculture are beginning to recognize the relevance of the social aspect of sustainability.

One important aspect of social sustainability is the manner in which governments, organizations, and citizens address and discharge duties of accountability to a range of stakeholders regarding the social and environmental impact of individuals and institutions. In line with the growing interest in social sustainability in general, there has been a substantial increase in research, teaching, and practitioner engagement with related issues and mechanisms.

Sustainability is often thought of as comprised of three overlapping, mutually dependent goals: (a) to live in a way that is environmentally sustainable or viable over the long term; (b) to live in a way that is economically sustainable, maintaining living standards over the long-term; and (c) to live in a way that is socially sustainable, now and in the future.

Many might argue that economic life should properly be thought of as an element of social sustainability because the economy is clearly a social construction rather than a natural phenomenon such as the weather. Indeed, the perhaps exaggerated place of economic concerns—reflected in its customary distinction from other social issues in this conception of sustainability—may be part of the challenge faced by advocates of greater sustainability. Further, the overemphasis on the economic leads to a too-exclusive focus on the production and consumption of marketed goods and services. The role of households, communities, and the public sector in providing supports that are difficult to value in economic terms are neglected, although critical to the accomplishment of well-being and sustainability.

As of today, concerns with environmental and economic sustainability have eclipsed efforts to understand the social aspects of sustainability. As noted by several of the authors of chapters in this volume, thinking on the social aspect of sustainability has been relatively neglected and is by far the least developed. Yet an increasing number of people are attempting to integrate social concerns into their work on sustainability, both theoretically and in practice. This anthology provides guidance for a developing field of thought from a variety of perspectives.

At present, consensus does not exist even on a definition of social sustainability. Polese and Stren (2000), writing up the findings of a UNESCO project on the “social sustainability of cities,” identify social sustainability as “policies and institutions that have the overall effect of integrating diverse groups and cultural practices in a just and equitable fashion” (p. 229).

Many analysts have followed Robert Putnam (2000) in an exploration of “social capital,” asserted by the World Bank (2007) among others, to consist of “the norms and networks that enable collective action.” Researchers working in this vein have understood social capital to result from participation in civic institutions. Creation of the term social capital is an attempt to use the analogy of capital to understand the role of social institutions and processes in the economy, much as environmental economists have used the term natural capital to describe natural resources and amenities. Presumably social sustainability would require that social capital be maintained at sustainable levels for future generations, perhaps requiring social support of effective civic institutions to this end.

Most business sustainability efforts appear to construe social sustainability as charity, performed as an act of public relations. These are “policies that encourage community involvement, volunteering, [and] development of local communities” (Taylor, 2003). According to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (2002) survey of large U.S. businesses, three quarters of the firms that responded to the survey were implementing some sustainable business practices, although relatively few are pursuing the social leg of the “triple bottom line”—corporate language for meeting financial, environmental, and social objectives as an organization. Where businesses are attending to the social aspect of sustainability, they are interpreting it as corporate philanthropy and sometimes as policies to help employees achieve work/family balance or to avoid burnout. Businesses do not seem to be weighing these projects in balance with initiatives generated elsewhere in the firm that impact social health, such as corporate support for tax-cutting measures that reduce funding for local schools or policies that limit part-time work or parental leave.

In urban planning circles, the tripartite understanding of sustainability is sometimes referred to as the three Es: environment, economy, and equity. Social sustainability is conceived of as equity, without much thought as to what that might require or whether equity alone is sufficient for social sustainability.

A more thought-out and satisfactory definition of social sustainability is provided by Harris and Goodwin (2001): “a socially sustainable system must achieve fairness in distribution and opportunity, adequate provision of social services, including health and education, gender equity, and political accountability and participation” (p. xxix).

Although more solid, this definition still misses the social process required to achieve economic and environmental sustainability that concern many. For instance, initiatives taken by the U.S. Forest Service under the leadership of one of our chapter authors, Gary Larsen, now include community involvement with the understanding that community engagement is necessary for successful implementation of environmental policies. Environmental economists have focused substantial attention on the issue of property rights, with the idea that clear ownership facilitates better environmental management.

However, social institutions conducive to better environmental outcomes may have adverse social consequences. This concern in highlighted in Randall Bluffstone’s chapter (Chapter 7), which examines the impact of particular systems of forest property rights on child labor in Bolivia. Often these social considerations are overlooked, as in the case of ecologists pointing out the ecological advantages of collective management of group resources without noting that the group governance is not democratic, but empowers only a small portion of the community (e.g., Alcorn & Toledo, 1998). Consequently, several contributors to this volume use a working definition of the social aspect of sustainability developed over time in our workshops and graduate seminars: that social aspect of sustainability should be understood as both

(a) the processes that generate social health and well-being now and in the future, and

(b) those social institutions that facilitate environmental and economic sustainability now and for the future.

The processes are both a means to, and an end of, social sustainability. Indeed, for the social aspect of sustainability in particular, processes may often be more important than outcomes. For instance, high rates of literacy achieved by a citizenry engaged in a democratic planning process, as in Kerala, India, may be far more socially sustainable than even higher rates of literacy accomplished in an authoritarian fashion (Thomas Isaac & Franke, 2002).

However, an adequate working definition of the social aspect of sustainability represents only the first step in developing an understanding of the concept. A number of faculty and graduate students at Portland State University have been working together over the last few years on the Social Sustainability Project of the Center for Professional Integrity and Accountability in an attempt to gain an analytical grasp of the social aspect of sustainability. One of the activities in which we engaged was an ongoing, interdisciplinary seminar series. This volume is largely the result of that seminar series.

As demonstrated by the following chapters, we employ a multidisciplinary perspective to explore a diverse range of topics along different geographical scales within varying locations to better understand the social aspect of sustainability. Rather than grapple with one particular facet of the social aspect of sustainability, we have chosen to each pursue that angle for which our expertise best suits us. Our hope is to provide spots of illumination in the large, multidimensional arena of social sustainability to serve as building blocks for further efforts.

Several general questions guided our investigations:

• How can the social aspect of sustainability be most usefully identified to facilitate measurement or movement toward progress?

• Is there any value to the codification of the social aspect of sustainability whether in legislation, business codes, or otherwise? If there is, how and at what level should they be codified?

• In which spheres of activity is the voluntary pursuit of social sustainability effective and in which spheres are regulation and enforcement more effective and appropriate? What are the dynamics between voluntary and mandated actions?

• What are the appropriate roles of small and large businesses, states and international organizations, and civil society and nongovernmental organizations in the pursuit of social sustainability?

• Is social sustainability compatible with a market-driven economy as we know it, or do markets require greater social accountability via state intervention in the economy?

• What is the role of democracy in the pursuit of social sustainability?

• What are the connections between the pursuit of social sustainabil ity at the local and global levels, and how do these affect the success of outcomes at either level?

• Can and should social sustainability be accomplished in developing nations, or is it a “luxury” of greater affluence? Might Third World nations accomplish sustainability more easily than the First World by applying lessons for the history of the wealthy nations without the vast numbers already accustomed to mass consumption?

We do not claim to have answered all of these questions or even to have directly taken on each of them. A great deal remains to be done. Following from our working definition specified earlier, we explore the meaning and application of the social aspect of sustainability from a number of angles and perspectives, including theoretical development, empirical measurement issues, and policy applications in both First and Third Worlds. The discussion ranges from macro-issues, such as the role for democracy in the international governance and the ability of Third World nations to balance an interest in sustainability with an imperative to grow, to micro-studies, such as the impact of changing property rights regimes in the Andes and the practices of small business owners anxious to operate as sustainably as possible.

The contributions of each of the chapters are reviewed in the next section.

PART I: OVERVIEWS OF THE FIELD

Part I comprises three chapters that view the field broadly at a high level of abstraction. It is in this section that we most directly confront questions of our theoretical understanding of the concept of the social aspect of sustainability, the importance of democracy, the necessity of “thinking globally,” and actionable measures for social sustainability.

In Chapter 2, “Emergent Principles of Social Sustainability,” Kristen Magis and...