Sustainability

9Social Dimensions of Sustainability

Anita Talan¹, R.D. Tyagi¹, and Rao Y. Surampalli²

¹INRS, Université du Québec, Québec, Canada

²Global Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability, Lenexa, KS, USA

9.1 Introduction

Social sustainability is a broad term that has been used for a long time but its meaning is still very far from developed. Social sustainability is one of the important dimensions of sustainability and is interlinked to other dimensions in various ways, which entails that change in any dimension of sustainability has an impact on social sustainability. From a social perspective, human wellbeing cannot be sustained without safe surroundings, a healthy environment and the presence of a vibrant economy that can fulfill all the basic needs of the communities residing nationally or globally. Government makes policies for the uplifting of social communities to achieve social sustainability but, alongside this, every nation needs informed citizens who participate actively. This is the essence of democracy and is essential for the protection of basic human rights. The three fundamental goals of social sustainable development are poverty reduction, social investment, and safe and caring communities. Nations, social communities and corporate communities are required to work together to achieve these goals.

Therefore, this chapter focuses on an in-depth analysis of the social dimension of sustainability with emphasis on factors affecting policies implemented in order ...