RCN-SEES: Integrated Network for Social Sustainability: Concepts, Language, and Assessment

可持续发展通常被解释为在设计产品或过程时必须共同优化的三个交叉领域：社会、环境和经济。与社会可持续性相比，环境和经济可持续性的概念得到了更深入的讨论，因此，它们得到了更好的界定和更一致的应用。尽管对社会可持续性有着共同的兴趣，但学者、专业人士和政策制定者往往对什么是社会可持续性以及如何实施和评估社会可持续性持有不同的观点。广义地说，可持续发展的社会方面考察了影响可持续发展并受其影响的社会关系、相互作用和制度。该项目的目的是促进和便利关于社会可持续性的含义的讨论，讨论社会可持续性与可持续性一般概念的关系，以及在各种情况下对社会可持续性的应用和衡量。该项目将使用各种面对面和虚拟会议以及虚拟通信技术，吸引政策、实践和学术部门的广泛参与，以确定社会可持续性，确定研究需求，并加强合作。来自合作机构的学生将参与和综合会议讨论，出席会议，并通过学生交流和实习经验发展网络。项目成果包括制定研究议程、手稿、专题期刊问题、建议和会议研讨会，以定义、理解和衡量社会可持续性。对RCN成就的评估将包括对我们的网络互动的研究(以了解语言因素对网络对话和进展的影响程度)，以及确定面对面和在线互动如何影响成员满意度和沟通频率。在最基本的层面上，关于社会可持续性的概念清晰是至关重要的，因为它有助于我们了解人类活动如何影响环境和经济的可持续性，并受到环境和经济可持续性的影响。例如，性别平等、社会正义和宗教自由问题与经济发展和稳定密切相关。这一项目提供了一种将这些主题联系起来的手段，以便将重点放在几个关键的早期概念和案例上，并使与社会可持续发展有关的概念和关切得到亟需的澄清。将积极致力于社会可持续发展问题的各种学术学科、机构和其他团体的不同观点聚集在一起，将使我们能够了解所谓的社会可持续发展的不同要素，并开始讨论如何研究社会可持续发展，将其纳入规划和政策，并进行评估。

Sustainable development is often explained in terms of three intersecting domains that must be co-optimized when designing a product or process: society, environment, and economy. The concepts of environmental and economic sustainability have been addressed in much greater depth than has social sustainability, and as a result, they are better defined and more consistently applied. Despite a shared interest in social sustainability, academics, professionals and policymakers often hold varying perspectives about what social sustainability is, and how it can be implemented and assessed. Broadly speaking, the social aspect of sustainability examines the social relationships, interactions, and institutions that affect, and are affected by, sustainable development. The purpose of this project is to promote and facilitate discussion about the meanings of social sustainability in its relation to general ideas about sustainability and in its application and measurement in a variety of contexts. The project will use a variety of in-person and virtual conferences and virtual communication technologies to engage broad participation from the policy, practice, and academic sectors to characterize social sustainability, determine research needs, and increase collaboration. Students from partner institutions will participate in and synthesize conference discussions, present at conferences, and develop networks through student exchanges and internship experiences. Project outcomes include developing research agendas, manuscripts, thematic journal issues, recommendations, and conference workshops for defining, understanding, and measuring social sustainability. Assessment of the achievements of the RCN will include the study of our network interactions (in order to understand the degree to which linguistic factors affect network dialogue and progress), and determination of how in-person and online interactions affect member satisfaction and communication frequency. At the most fundamental level, conceptual clarity regarding social sustainability is crucial because it helps us understand how human activity affects, and is affected by, environmental and economic sustainability. For example, issues of gender equity, social justice, and religious freedom are intimately bound to economic development and stability. This project provides a means to connect topics such as these to provide focus on a few, key, early-stage concepts and cases, and bring much-needed clarity to the concepts and concerns related to social sustainability. Bringing together diverse perspectives from a variety of academic disciplines, agencies, and other groups who are actively working on issues related to social sustainability will allow us to understand the different elements of what might be called social sustainability, and to start a conversation about how social sustainability can be studied, integrated into planning and policies, and assessed.