REPORT OF UNESCO EXPERT MEETING ON - APCEIU

goals. This is based on the belief that human needs cannot be sufficiently met through an ecologically
sound and healthy environment alone. A society that is committed to sustainability has to take care of the
equally important and legitimate economic, social, cultural and political rights, needs and responsibilities
of its members as well. Indeed these very conditions and values are resources that need to be increased
and preserved for future generations.
These dimensions - environment, economy and society (with culture as the underlying, crosscutting
base) are now referred by UNESCO as the three pillars of sustainable development (UNCED
1992). However, in reality there has been unequal attention or treatment of these three pillars. Neither are
the links and inter-relationships of these pillars sufficiently mapped out. In fact much of the discourse on
sustainable development has centered mainly on the environment and economy, neglecting the cultural,
spiritual, political-institutional and social dimensions in society. They have generally received far less
attention than the economic and environment/ecological dimensions even though sustainable
development is so closely linked with and integral to the quality of life and well being of present and
future generations. What then is the role of social, cultural and political features in sustainable
development? This brings us to the topic of this paper: socially sustainable development.
Socially Sustainable Development, Sustainable Human Development and Gender
Equity/Equality
Socially sustainable development
What is socially sustainable development? How does it relate to sustainable development? How
can it be recognized? What are its indicators? How can aspects of social sustainability be attained or
addressed in the field of education, specifically through teacher education?
Sustainability addresses the question of how societies can shape their modes of existence, change
and continuity in ways that ensure conditions that can support the continuity of life of present and future
generations, preserving and making all that is good last. From this point of view the component of
sustainable development under the pillar of ‘society’ refers to the viability of socially, culturally and
politically shaped practices, relations and relationships amongst people in society - within and between
nations; and between society and nature over time. This is what is often regarded as socially sustainable
development by various people (for example, Sachs 1999, Koning 2001, Thin, Lockhart & Yaron 2002,
Littig & Briebker 2005). Dimensions of social sustainability are related to the various social, cultural and
political aspects of life, to the issues that threaten the continuity of people’s lives, which affect the continued
betterment of our society, from intra-generation to inter-generation to inter-species, within and between
nations. These issues range from those that affect the security and dignity of individuals at the intra and
inter-personal levels to more systemic problems of poverty, injustice, inequity and armed conflict that affect
not only the conditions and position of specific social groups but whole nations and whole regions in the
world, including the issues that affect our economy and eco-systems directly. These issues are diverse and
complex and have been defined in different ways and emphasized differently by different people. However
90