New alliances for sustainability policy Systematization of the social dimension of environmental policy
In the sustainability discourse, alongside the ecological and economic, the social dimension has long had a firm place. Nevertheless, there is as little agreement and clarity about the conceptualization of social sustainability in the discourse as there is about the conceptualization of the 'social' in general in sociology. Different schools of theory have been debating for decades about the interpretation of this so central and yet elusive concept. The focus of this paper is in particular the systematization of the social dimensions of environmental policy.
This literature review approaches the challenge on different levels. First, it evaluates sources that explicitly address the challenge of the social dimension in the context of the concept of sustainability and analyzes possible approaches. In the following section, key concepts and dimensions of the different approaches to social sustainability are further explored for this purpose (Chapter 2 for substantive sustainability and Chapter 3 for procedural approach). Chapter 4 highlights the different approaches for the two specific policy areas of transport and energy policy. Chapter 5 delves into how the substantive dimension of social sustainability is considered in policy impact assessment. Chapter 6 focuses on the procedural side and discusses institutional-economic approaches to social change as well as the multi-level perspective of transformative change. Finally, Chapter 7 addresses "Ecological Modernization 2.0" and thus social change processes and the dynamics of environmental policy.
