6c. Social sustainability: impacts, threats and opportunities

Track chairs

Roberto Gutierrez Poveda. Universidad de los Andes School of Management, Colombia. robgutie@uniandes.edu.co

Evandro Mateus Moretto. Institute of Energy and Environment - IEE, School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities - EACH, University of São Paulo - USP, Brazil. evandromm@usp.br

Sara Moreno Pires. Research Unit on Governance, Public Policies and Competitiveness (GOVCOPP), University of Aveiro, Portugal. sarapires@ua.pt

Goals and objectives

What is meant by social sustainability? How to take into account the fundamental changes in the society-nature relationship over the past decades? The notion of social sustainability raises critical debates and questions relating to the viability of social and cultural aspects of societies and to the multidimensional aspects of the past, present and future relationship between society and nature. This offers multiple opportunities for social theory-building and its practice, motivating an intensive social, scientific and political debate over the biggest global environmental and social challenges of our time. Societies across the globe reveal sharp differences in their evolution, global inequalities are increasing in developed and developing countries and severe threats to human rights are spreading in an increasingly globalised, interdependent and interconnected world. Requirements for innovative social and economic solutions towards new models of production and consumption and more just and safe environment are urgent. This track seeks to examine and debate some social transformations and their wider implications to make theoretical, concrete progresses and changes in addressing global environmental challenges and the sustainability of our society and economy.

Areas and potential topics in which contributions are sought include:

  • Methodologies for the analysis of justice and sustainability of socio-ecological systems
  • The concept of a just society - national and international - conflicting analytical frameworks
  • Facets of unjust societies - nature of the distribution of assets and rewards
  • Economic and social (in)equality in traditional and modern societies - the effects of globalisation
  • Differential impacts of environmental degradation on the rich and the poor societies
  • Social innovation: innovative economic and social practices for sustainability
  • Critical reviews of national and international policies to achieve a more just society and community resilience
  • Social capital, human rights, and community development for sustainability
  • Cultural diversity and intergenerational threats and opportunities

 

You may submit your abstract by visiting the Ex Ordo abstract submission system (you will be required to setup an account first): http://isdrs2017.exordo.com

 


 

Roberto Gutiérrez, Ph.D. in Sociology from Johns Hopkins University, is an Associate Professor in the School of Management at the Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia) since 1995.  For five years he chaired the Social Enterprise Knowledge Network (SEKN), a network of ten universities in the Americas and Spain created in 2001. He has published articles about alliances, social enterprises, education and development in popular media and academic journals -among them the American Sociological Review, the Review of Educational Research, the Journal of Management Education, Stanford Social Innovation Review, the Harvard Business Review Latin America, the Journal of Business Ethics, Organization & Environment and Long Range Planning.

Evandro Mateus Moretto is  Associate Professor of Institute of Energy and Environment - IEE and School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities - EACH, University of São Paulo - USP, Brazil; Researcher in Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Planning and Management; Coordinator of Post-graduate Program in Environmental Science - PROCAM of University of São Paulo - USP; President of Brazilian Association for Impact Assessment - ABAI; Councillor of State Council for the Environment of São Paulo - CONSEMA.

Sara Moreno Pires is PhD in Applied Environmental Sciences (University of Aveiro, Portugal), MSc in Development and Planning: Environment and Sustainable Development (University College London, UK), BSc in Economics (University of Coimbra, Portugal). Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences of the University of Aveiro and researcher at the Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies (GOVCOPP). Currently doing a postdoctoral study on the assessment of the quality of local governance for sustainable development in Portugal. Her research interests are mainly centered on the development and use of sustainable development indicators and their role on urban governance contexts, urban sustainability planning, environmental and social policies and monitoring in Europe and Portugal.

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