Social sustainability – society at the intersection of development and maintenance

Abstract

Since the late 1980s, much of the debate on sustainability has been dominated by ecological perspectives. However, the last decade has seen an increasing interest in the social aspects of sustainability. While, to some extent, general consensus has been reached regarding the definitions of ecological sustainability, the definition of social sustainability is still in the making. Therefore, there is a need for conceptual frameworks and theoretical constructs in order to develop the understanding of social sustainability further. This article addresses the lack of theorisation and is composed of three different sections. The first section is a literature overview covering some of the most influential texts on social sustainability. The second section introduces and relates a number of existing, polemically constructed theoretical frameworks. In the third section, Jacques Derrida's theory of différance is used to suggest a way of understanding the relationship between the oppositional positions identified in the frameworks.

Keywords:

• social sustainability
• sustainable development
• democracy
• pluralism
• poststructuralism
• Jacques Derrida

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Ann Lantz and Åsa Moberg for their valuable comments. This work has been co-funded by Vinnova and other partners to the Center for Sustainable Communications at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.