The Organization of Social Sustainability Work in Swedish Eco-Municipalities

Lisa Wälitalo,Merlina Missimer

doi:10.3390/su14052770

Abstract

Even though large parts of a municipal administration’s work are aligned with social sustainability, this dimension has been somewhat more challenging and there seems to be a vast diversity in how it is approached. Academic literature on the systematic organization of this work is sparse. The aim of this study was to understand how Swedish municipalities organize their work with social sustainability and to find best practices. A survey among 21 municipalities and follow-up interviews with three of them were conducted. The study revealed that the organization of social sustainability work varies considerably among municipalities and that no simple patterns relating to size or existing organizational structures can be detected. Each municipality seems to be finding its own way and is more or less successful in strategically working with this area. Best practice focused on creating additional structures for collaboration across departments, with external actors, and across sectors to at least partly overcome the silo approach engrained in a municipal structure. It was also connected to the active involvement of leaders, clear mandates, and that a common vision for social sustainability was communicated. These lessons can be transferred to other municipalities and help them move towards social sustainability in a strategic way.

Highlights

Municipal administrations are considered key players in addressing our current sustainability challenge [1]
Results from the survey are first presented in terms of what municipalities are doing in relation to social sustainability, what they consider as the scope of social sustainability, how success is described, what guides strategic action, what they do in practice, and what tools are in use
We gained an up-to-date understanding of current social sustainability work in 21 Swedish eco-municipalities and identified three best practice examples that stood out from the others

Summary

Introduction

Municipal administrations are considered key players in addressing our current sustainability challenge [1]. Challenges and barriers for the work have been identified [6–8]. It is possible to follow up the work, and strategically and systematically improve, for example, through identifying people and operations involved in concrete and demarcated areas such as energy or transportation and to create functions and structures to coordinate and address them in collaboration, e.g., [9–11]. To solve ecological sustainability challenges such as climate change or biodiversity loss, it is important to simultaneously address social sustainability issues [12]. The complexity of the combined sustainability challenge [13] and the fact that social sustainability is defined in various ways [14,15] lead to multiple interpretations and ideas of what systematic and strategic work could look like for municipal administration

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion