Abstract
Integrating the three pillars of sustainability (environmental, economic, and social) in environmental management is a complex task. Imbalances in sustainability considerations often translate to a higher focus on economic and/or environmental aspects to the detriment of the social ones. Social dimensions of sustainability are referred to as ‘problematic’ due to the shortfalls of current approaches in measuring, identifying and including subjective, qualitative aspects into environmental planning and decision-making. The concept of community capitals and assets is increasingly applied within environmental management for its potential to foster more effective and holistically sustainable decisions by assessing both tangible and intangible resources that are present in the impacted community(ies). Our research analyzes - through an extensive review of peer-reviewed articles- theoretical and empirical applications of asset-based approaches for the inclusion of social sustainability into environmental management. Results show that asset-based approaches constitute an effective tool for the inclusion of non-objective criteria into decision-making, thus fostering a holistic sustainability assessment of environmental interventions. However, these approaches encounter some limitations in regard to discrepancies between their theoretical formulation and empirical application and the existence of differing terminology to indicate community assets. On the basis of our findings, we claim the importance of conducting asset mapping with the intention to identify community resources a priori - as opposed to using assets as impact categories ex-post. We also suggest that, in order to facilitate the practice-oriented application of asset-based approaches, the adoption of an easily understandable and universal terminology to refer to assets is necessary.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Multiple Legacies: Heritage, Traditions, Local Ecologies, Knowledge, Values, Protection
KEYWORDS
Environmental management, Social sustainability, Community capitals, Asset-based approach
