Method of Selective Literature Review in Defining Social Sustainability of Sustainable Development

Abstract

The imbalance of attention given in adapting the social principles in the sustainable development agenda is considered as an indisputable issue that has been highlighted in many scholarly literatures. Scholars were in line in arguing that of the three pillars of sustainability associated with sustainable development, namely environment, economy and social, the social pillar is often being overlooked. In relation to that, a study has been conducted to explore in detail the attributes of social sustainability from the sustainable development perspective. The study managed to outline the key principles of social sustainability from the development perspective based on the in-depth review of the previous scholarly literature. This paper highlights the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) methodology adapted in the study. A total of 81 related scholarly literature from year 1991 to year 2020 were reviewed by adapting the SLR method. Two principles of searching techniques, namely advanced searching (screening) and manual searching (eligibility) were utilized to track the relevant literature. The details of the searching techniques for each reviewed scholarly literature published for almost three decades of publication are outlined in this paper.