Title: Social sustainability: a catchword between political pragmatism and social theory

Authors: Beate Littig, Erich Griessler

Addresses: Department of Sociology, Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS), Stumpergasse 56, A 1060 Vienna, Austria. ' Department of Sociology, Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS), Stumpergasse 56, A 1060 Vienna, Austria

Abstract: The sustainability concepts of the ||Brundtland-Report|| and the ||Rio documents|| call for a combination of ecological, economic, social and institutional aspects of social development. This paper describes briefly, several models of sustainability and discusses social sustainability as conceptualised in selected sustainability indicators. In an attempt to remedy the lack of sociological theory, the paper proposes a sustainability concept, which is based on the concepts of needs and work, as an activity to fulfil these needs and as the principal exchange process between society and nature. Moreover, this paper argues in favour of recognition of social sustainability as both a normative and analytical concept.

Keywords: needs; social sustainability; sustainable work; gender; mixed work; ecological sustainability; economic sustainability; sustainable development; governance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSD.2005.007375

International Journal of Sustainable Development, 2005 Vol.8 No.1/2, pp.65 - 79

Published online: 14 Jul 2005 *

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