Measuring urban social sustainability

What is it about?

Despite the significant role of social sustainability in the sustainable development agenda, there is a lack of research to clearly define and fully operationalise the concept of urban social sustainability. The aim of this study is to contribute to the existing literature by developing a comprehensive measurement scale to assess urban social sustainability (USS) at the neighbourhood level. We argue that urban social sustainability is a multidimensional concept that incorporates six main dimensions of social interaction, sense of place, social participation, safety, social equity, and neighbourhood satisfaction. Failure to consider each of these dimensions may lead to an incomplete picture of social sustainability.

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Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Why is it important?

In this article, we address the lack of clear theoretical conceptualisation and operationalisation of social sustainability concept through developing, and empirically testing, a comprehensive and multidimensional scale for measuring urban social sustainability (USS) at the neighbourhood level. In addition, this study provides new evidence on the influence of quality of design, as one of the least studied urban form factors, on people's perceived levels of social sustainability.