# **2. Conceptual and Measurement Framework of Social Sustainability**<sup>**1**</sup>

<mark>The social sustainability literature spans multiple decades across academic and professional disciplines, with diverse applications, definitions, and connotations across the public and private sectors and the global, national, and local levels.</mark><sup>2</sup> <mark>The initial literature on sustainability often treated the social pillar as secondary to or subsumed within environmental and economic sustainability.</mark><sup>3</sup> <mark>A more contemporary view is that no pillar can be understood in isolation and that all three must be considered relationally (World Bank 2013, Ballet Bazin, and Mahieu 2020).</mark> <mark>Specific to social sustainability, this concept was initially defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). At other times, social sustainability has been equated with social inclusion (World Bank, 2013b). It has also been described as some combination of community and national dynamics, contemporary and intergenerational equity, social justice, voice, inclusion, participation, and citizenship (Giddings, Hopwood and O’Brien, 2002; McKenzie, 2004; Cuthill, 2010; Dempsey et al, 2011; Bostrom, 2012; Eizenberg and Jabareen, 2017; Ballet, Bazin and Mahieu, 2020). The complexity of social sustainability in terms of its components, interactions and goals has often led to unworkably long lists of attributes. In fact, the list of features employed in the literature is long and open-ended. Dempsey et al. (2011) proposed a list of 27 elements, whereas Weingaertner and Moberg (2014) identified 17 dimensions.</mark> <mark>Despite the absence of a consensus around the concept or measurement of social sustainability, there is sufficient common ground to discard some elements and include others in our proposed framework. Ballet, Bazin and Mahieu (2020) identify just three recurring aspects of social sustainability in the literature: social cohesion (coherence in the attitudes and behaviors of members of a given society), equity (lack of inequalities), and safety (protection from economic shocks). They also show that each of these components is closely connected with environmental sustainability. Littig and Griessler (2005) define social sustainability as interactions between individuals and related institutional arrangements. Those links help satisfy an extended set of human needs and fulfill the normative claims of social justice, human dignity and participation. World Bank (2005) provides a conceptually similar definition of socially sustainable development. According to the World Bank, development is socially sustainable when it promotes inclusive, resilient, cohesive and accountable institutions. More recently, Barron et al (2023) construct a social sustainability framework out of components spanning inclusion, resilience, social cohesion and process legitimacy.</mark> <mark>Barron et al (2023), arguably provide the definition and conceptual framework for social sustainability that is more rigorously grounded in the existing academic literature but that are also aligned with the key objectives, strategic priorities, and operational frameworks common in international development. Their definition is the following:</mark>

> 1 This section draws from Barron et al (2023), Cuesta et al (2022).

> 2 See, for instance, Åhman (2013); Barron et al (2023); Boström (2012); Boyer et al. (2016); Colantonio (2007, 2009); Eizenberg and Jabareen (2017); Griessler and Littig (2005); James et al. (2013); Koning (2001); McKenzie (2004); Sachs (1999).

> 3 See, for instance, Daly (1996); Sachs (1999); Kunz (2006); Locke and Dearden (2005); Partridge (2005); Vifell and Soneryd (2012).

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