The social phenomenon of children without parental care and those at risk of separation from their parents has gained considerable global attention in recent years. A key concern is the over-reliance on institutional care mainly in Africa, Asia and Latin America as the default form of alternative care for such children. Extensive research points to mostly negative impact of separation of children from families and institutionalization of children which affects their health outcomes and development. In response to this global crisis, the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children were developed in 2010. Kenya domesticated the guidelines in 2014 and is in the process of implementation. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development and more specifically the Social Sustainability Principles are used in this study to assess the extent to which the UN Guidelines, Kenya Guidelines and implementation of alternative care of children in Kenya align to Social Sustainability. This research finds that the guidelines are highly aligned to social sustainability although their implementation points to major structural obstacles that if minimized will promote social sustainability of alternative care in Kenya. A coherent well-coordinated approach that takes a systems perspective and links to the mainstream social development agenda is recommended.

The urban population has rapidly grown in recent years, consequently creating challenges for sustainable development. To achieve sustainability, economic, ecological, and social sustainability are required to be in balance. However, social sustainability is often argued to be challenging and complex that lacks a common definition, creating a de-prioritization of social sustainability in urban development. This master’s thesis aimed to provide a higher prioritization and establish a common definition of the concept through the development of a framework for measuring social sustainability of urban space in a Swedish context. This framework aimed to benefit the spatial planning practice when developing urban spaces socially sustainable.    Through a literature review, a policy analysis, and interviews conducted with spatial planners from Stockholm and Gothenburg, a foundation of a framework was created based on a set of indicators and sub-indicators. The research resulted in one main indicator creating the foundation of Swedish social sustainability, followed by two categorizations of physical respective non-physical factors each containing several indicators and sub-indicators for social sustainability. The result indicated that Swedish social sustainability partly differed from the general approach of the concept through its emphasis within a few indicators, but generally approached similar indicators as within existing research. Further, the research redirected the stated challenge regarding the lack of a common definition of social sustainability towards the suggested main challenge regarding a lack of a common understanding. The proposed foundation of a framework was argued to meet the stated challenge through the understanding of different aspects of importance within social sustainability.    Lastly, the master’s thesis questioned the practice of measuring social sustainability and the consequences that would follow such measures. The research showed that social sustainability could be measured but the question remained whether it should. However, the research indicated that the implementation of such framework would benefit the spatial planning practice to a certain extent.

Fashion apparel industry has been connected to detrimental social consequences, particularly in developing countries. In this case, tier one suppliers are in a unique position to play a critical role in addressing these concerns because they are the key in between brand and rest tiers and can apply sustainable practices that promote ethical/responsible production as tire one suppliers are conduction their production operation with the help of a huge human force. By collaborating with first/tier one suppliers to prioritize social sustainability, fashion apparel firms can strike a balance between their own ambitions, social goals and, while also reducing the dangers of exploitation and unfavorable publicity.

Syfte: Syftet är att få en förståelse för hur ledare använder sociala hållbarhetsfaktorer, samt hur detta påverkar arbetsmotivationen hos medarbetarna. Metod: Studien tillämpar en kvalitativ metod utifrån den hermeneutiska vetenskapstraditionen. Det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom 13 semistrukturerade intervjuer. För att fånga båda perspektiven har dessa intervjuer utförts med både ledare och medarbetare. Under transkriberingen av detta material identifierades teman och kategorier vilka legat till grund för utformningen av empirin och analysen. Resultat & slutsats: Studien visar att samtliga ledare i undersökningen arbetar med både de grundläggande motivationsfaktorerna och de sociala hållbarhetsfaktorerna. Det framkommer hur utförandet av detta arbete utförs skiljer sig åt mellan de olika ledarna, vilket innebär att det finns flera olika metoder för varje enskild faktor. Examensarbetets bidrag: Det har visat sig att uppfattningarna angående vilka faktorer som leder direkt till ökad arbetsmotivation skiljer sig åt. Detta gäller både mellan ledare och medarbetare, men även för individerna inom samma grupp. Resultatet vi fått fram utifrån detta är även något som inte helt stämmer överens med tidigare forskning. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: För fortsatt forskning rekommenderar vi att det utförs en studie med en fördjupning i varför vissa faktorer leder till arbetsmotivation medan andra enbart är förutsättningar för arbetsmotivationen. Ytterligare några faktorer är dessutom en kombination av de båda. En förståelse bakom detta mönster skulle bidra till att utöka forskningsområdet. / Aim: The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of how leaders work with social sustainability factors, and how this affects the employees’ work motivation. Method: This study applies a qualitative method which proceeds from the hermeneutic science tradition. The empirical material has been collected through 13 semi structured interviews. To capture both perspectives, we've interviewed both leaders and employees. During the transcription we identified themes and categories which founded the empirics and analysis. Result & conclusions: Our study indicates that all leaders work both with the fundamental motivation factors and the factors of social sustainability. It appears that how the leaders work with the factors differs, which imply that there are several different methods for achieving each factor. Contribution of the thesis: It has been shown that the interpretation differ of which factors leads to an increased work motivation. This refers both between the leaders and the employees, but also to the individuals within the same group. The result from this does not agree with previous research. Suggestions for future research: For further research, we recommend a study to investigate on why certain factors lead to work motivation while others solely are prerequisites to achieve it. Other elements are in addition to that a combination of both. An understanding behind this pattern would contribute to expand the current research field.

Considering the lack of clear guidance regarding the way business could include social sustainability into their operations, the objective of this research project was to study the functionality of social sustainability tools which are used worldwide by business practitioners and assess how useful these tools are to overcome barriers related with social aspects of sustainability as they are described in the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD): health, influence, competence, impartiality and meaning-making. A qualitative method analysis was selected, based upon direct content analysis. Elements from the 5 Level Framework (5LF) and the FSSD were used for designing two review processes to analyse selected social sustainability tools. The 5LF is useful for planning in complex systems, while the FSSD is designed to address complex challenges and recognize opportunities which aim to sustainability. The findings from the research show which tools, based on their functionality, can help a company move towards sustainability and illustrate how they address different social sustainability aspects. Based on these findings, recommendations were developed which included key features of the selected social sustainability tools. These recommendations could help business practitioners to choose the most appropriate tool for specific business context depending on the company’s needs.

The purpose of this paper is to visualize how vital the concept of social sustainability is to secure a sustainable society. To answer this, two surveys have been made. One study examines and compares how selected concepts are highlighted in the curricula Lgy 70, Lpf94 and GY11, in order to answer how the concept of social sustainability changed over time. The second survey analyzes the positive effects that may arise with increased social sustainability in the school. In order to answer this question, an interview has been made with a teacher who has been working for all three curricula. The choice of subject is based on the latest Friends-report, which states that every fourth child in school is exposed to abusive treatment and every tenth child is subjected to bullying. The essay is based on a hermeneutic theory whose purpose is to interpret collected material to bring in a deeper understanding. In order to create a deeper understanding, the essay has used a qualitative method that stands out to give an overall picture. The essay also contains a comparative method for analyzing similarities and differences between the different curricula Lgy70, Lpf94 and GY11. The results of the essay show that the concept of social sustainability has undergone a major change from the 1970s to today. The results also show that if social sustainability is given more space in education, hopefully we can see a reduction in discrimination in school. This would in turn result and contribute to a stronger society.

Companies are increasingly pressed to consider sustainability aspects when making decisions during product development. However, the methodological support for doing so is immature. The immaturity is particularly pronounced regarding the social dimension (or pillar) of sustainability and regarding strategic sustainability considerations. The overall aim of this thesis was to explore how the social dimension of sustainability and a strategic sustainability perspective could be better included in methodological support for product development. This was pursued in two ways.   Firstly, a two-staged review of the literature was conducted. Stage one focused on summarizing the state of the art of integration of social sustainability aspects in product development and stage two focused on critically analyzing and evaluating these efforts. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development was used to guide the analysis of the current integration efforts and the evaluation of their potential for supporting sustainable product development and strategic sustainable development in general. Secondly, a recently published principled definition of social sustainability was used to enhance two approaches for including sustainability considerations in product development. One of these approaches is focused on decision-making support at concept selection, based on assessment and comparison of sustainability implications of the considered product concepts. The other approach is focused on developing sustainability criteria and a related sustainability compliance index in support of concept development.   In the literature review, social life cycle assessment methods (Social LCA) were found to represent a large part of the current efforts, and several challenges with those methods were identified. From a decision support perspective, they were found to have weaknesses regarding applicability and robustness: results from the assessment, usually performed by scientists to evaluate a scientific question, may be too complex to interpret from a business standpoint; the impact perspective may be too narrow, missing important aspects of social sustainability; and generally they lack a strategic perspective. The use of a strategic sustainable development perspective in the approaches prototyped in this thesis is a way of tackling these challenges. The use of backcasting from visions framed by sustainability principles can: help organize and make sense of the general field of sustainability, highlighting where overlaps between objectives exist; provide the long term perspective needed for sustainability; allow for product developers to gain awareness of potential impacts of a product’s life cycle phases within existing knowledge, time and resource constraints; help build a roadmap in order to reduce a product’s contribution to unsustainability (including social unsustainability).   Future research will focus on further testing and development of the suggested approaches and specifically on further development of tactical design guidelines that provide support for the fulfilment of long-term sustainability criteria and clarify the connection between decisions taken during product development and a product’s sustainability profile.

Transportation planning has become increasingly more performance-based over the past several decades. In part due the mandate from the 2012 Federal Surface Transportation Program authorization, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), agencies are adopting performance-based policies and programmatic frameworks to integrate the attainment of national goals into the transportation planning and decision making process. As agencies implement performance-driven decision making as a means to achieve national goals, local goals will become subject to the same framework. Although equity is not a national goal, transportation agencies continue to recognize it within their vision and planning goals. However, it is difficult to determine what constitutes equity, and to quantify and measure it. To plan for equitable outcomes in transportation therefore, it is necessary to develop evaluation methods that support the integration of equity in planning processes. The objectives of this research are to develop recommendations for procedures to formally incorporate equity considerations in transportation planning and program evaluation and to propose methodological revisions to existing analytical processes to enable evaluation of cumulative accessibility outcomes. A literature review -- drawing from the theories of equity, Federal regulations for addressing equity in transportation, performance management, and transportation and sustainability -- and practitioner interviews were used to gather information on the common and effective practices for addressing equity in transportation planning at the regional level. This information was an input in the development of a quantitative research approach to explore methodological limitations and planning gaps related to transportation planning for equitable outcomes. These results informed the development of a comprehensive approach to analyze and characterize cumulative impacts (i.e. accessibility) regionally. The approach is used to develop recommendations for regional transportation planning to influence equitable transportation outcomes for the full range of demographic groups over time. The research contributes to the knowledge base and professional practice of transportation planning by putting forward a construction for approaching equity in transportation planning and decision making based on equity theory, developing analytical methods to evaluate transportation investments for equitable outcomes, and offering a set of recommendations for moving transportation planning practices towards transportation planning for equitable outcomes.

Implicit in any urban design is a negotiation between public and private interests. Such a negotiation is articulated and made legible in the facades, fences and even more subtle edges separating this from that. A complex variety of spatial situations are produced depending on how spaces are framed, how interfaces are materialized. In the city, the interplay of open space, building and boundary produces a patchwork of subspaces, which we can consider as potential urban territories. Most of us are familiar with the results of territorial production and recognize that fences, furniture or plantings are claims to space by an individual or group. However, the reason to conceive of this process as a territorial production may not be immediately apparent. Consequences of territorial production on percep-tions and behavior are rather under-analyzed, especially in the context of the city. This thesis looks specifically at territorial responses to urban form in the potential social arenas of shared yards in multifamily housing schemes. Drawing on territoriality- and commons-theory as a basis for morphological studies using spatial analysis (e.g. GIS), the thesis proposes that territorial uses of space are in part connected to characteristics of urban form. The thesis explores these spatial underpinnings of claims on space, examining historical, sociological and architectural perspectives and implications on current planning praxis. Parallels are drawn with the role of excludability and rivalry in the production of goods as per commons-theory. Recognizing that even territories like yards perform differently depending on built form characteristics is a step to designing open space with greater social utility. Most notably, the findings that spatial enclosure supports sense of ownership while spaciousness and size support frequency of use is knowledge useful to the practitioner with a role in the production of urban environments, whether in planning, design or construction. With increasing focus on sustainability in urbanism, factoring in social sustainability in land use means recognizing what makes yards inviting to use and elicit feelings of stewardship. Moreover, the importance of legibility at the interface of public and private has implications for design of public space as well. What appears to have been insufficiently problematized in the past are the non-excludable, rivalrous yards which appear to be parks, but do not perform as such territorially. The thesis suggests how a theoretical basis may support design inter-ventions and even densification to resolve such “territorial instability.” / <p>QC 20160310</p>

Att skapa hållbara städer är ett av de viktigaste målen idag för att tackla problem som rör ekologiska, ekonomiska och sociala frågor i vår värld. Syftet med denna uppsats är att visa hur ägare av det fysiska rummet i städer, nämligen fastighetsägare, har möjligheter men också restriktioner för att påverka. Genom att lösa sociala problem i städer, med cirkulärt ekonomiska verksamheter i fastigheterna, kan vi komma närmare att uppnå Jane Jacobs bild av en levande och demokratisk stad där människor själva bidrar till en hållbar stadsutveckling. För att kunna förstå fastighetsägarnas möjligheter och restriktioner, i detta fall Hemsö fastighets AB, har intervjuer genomförts med Vd:n som fastställer riktlinjerna i företaget, men även andra medarbetare, för att få en bild av deras handlingsutrymme. Dessa möjligheter och restriktioner diskuteras sedan utifrån Jacobs teorier för en stadsutveckling som i denna uppsats anses vara ett socialt hållbar sätt och exemplifieras med cirkulärt ekonomiska verksamheter för att visa hur detta även leder till en hållbar stadsutveckling. Resultatet visade att restriktionerna är detaljplaner, hyresavtal, bygglov och företagets lönsamhetskrav. Den visade också på många möjligheter och en vilja att vara hållbara. Problemet som visat sig är bristen på kunskapen om hur det kan ske.