Geography

Social sustainability: Politics and democracy in a time of crisis

Document Type

Book Chapter

Abstract

Does social sustainability carry any political meaning? The answer to this question is not obvious. Since the 1990s, sustainability has proven a rallying call for policy makers and activists of many stripes. Emerging alongside a growing scientific concern with climate change, sustainability has transformed contemporary political and policy thought. As such, it is unlikely to go away any time soon. As the triple-bottom-line (TBL) conceptualization of sustainability (Elkington, 1999) has gained widespread acceptance, public debates have become more focused on developing programmes for sustainability’s constitutive elements. If we evaluate the effectiveness of the concept of sustainability in terms of popularity - including TBL variants - it appears to have been a highly effective idea that is commonly used to think about various forms of change.

Publication Title

Urban Social Sustainability: Theory, Policy and Practicepolicy

Publication Date

1-1-2019

First Page

27

Last Page

41

ISBN

9781315115740

DOI

10.4324/9781315115740

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