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European Research on Sustainable Development pp 35–57Cite as

Social Sustainability: Exploring the Linkages Between Research, Policy and Practice

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Abstract

In recent years the social dimension (or ‘social sustainability’) has gained increased recognition as a fundamental component of sustainable development, becoming increasingly entwined with the delivery of sustainable communities discourse and the urban sustainability discourse. Environmental and economic issues dominated the sustainable development debate at its beginning whilst it is only in the late 1990s that social issues were taken into account within the sustainability agenda. Although its growing recognition has spurred an emerging body of literature on social sustainability, our understanding of this concept is still fuzzy and limited by theoretical and methodological constraints stemming from its context and disciplinary-dependent definitions and measurements. As Sachs (1999) puts it, at a fundamental level, it is still unclear whether the concept of social sustainability means the social preconditions for sustainable development or the need to sustain specific structures and customs in communities and societies.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Prof. Tim Dixon for his numerous helpful editorial comments, which have significantly improved the structure and the content of this chapter through various drafts. I also wish to thank Prof. John Glasson for his valuable suggestions especially concerning the sections examining sustainability assessment and indicators.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK

    Andrea Colantonio (Research Coordinator)

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  1. Andrea Colantonio
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Correspondence to Andrea Colantonio .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Impact Research, Transdisciplinary Concepts & Methods, Potsdam Institute for Climate Change, Telegrafenberg A31, Potsdam, 14473, Germany

    Carlo C. Jaeger

  2. , Institute of Environmental Sciences, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Campus UAB, Cerdanyola del Valles, 08193, Spain

    J. David Tàbara

  3. European Climate Forum, Potsdam, 14406, Germany

    Julia Jaeger

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Colantonio, A. (2011). Social Sustainability: Exploring the Linkages Between Research, Policy and Practice. In: Jaeger, C., Tàbara, J., Jaeger, J. (eds) European Research on Sustainable Development. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19202-9_5

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