8b.
Welfare

A sustainable society needs to secure human welfare. Welfare is very multidimensional and in addition different for each person, and it also depends on the society. Basic is security, health, and justice; to secure basic needs such as food; and access to education and work opportunities. Human welfare will be touched upon here and in several other sessions, in particular see also Chapter 8c, and Chapter 10 b. Welfare is an important component of the social dimension of sustainable development. Here we will attempt to define what is included in basic needs and rights. This is not similar to resource flows and other physical and biological conditions, and we will have to rely on norms, that is ethics, as first principles, rather than laws of nature.

A large crowd

A first principle is the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948. The background was the atrocities carried out during the Second World War and the need for a document establishing which values that should not be violated regardless of circumstances. It is interesting to note that the Earth Charter (not yet adopted by the UN) can be seen as an extension of the Declaration, to encompass not only humans but also all other living beings and all Nature. The General Declaration of Human Rights have been followed by several other documents e.g. on children’s rights, workers’ rights etc. The UN system has thus played, and still plays, an important role in establishing a global ethics.

The Human Rights The Declaration includes a number of freedoms and rights, which had been included in different declarations since the American Declaration of independence of 1776 and French Revolution of 1789. These include religious freedom, political freedom (right of speech); to this was later added sexual freedom. There are also inscribed equal rights between genders, between different ethnic groups and rights for minorities. Each human individual should thus be respected and his/her integrity protected regardless of physical, ethnic or social belonging. The Declaration of Independence says "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness".

It is obvious that these rights have not been implemented fully in any state, although differences between states are large. Especially should be mentioned that minority rights are violated repeatedly as majority groups attempt to secure their own power and privileges, which in the worst case can lead to ethnic cleansing. Gender rights are violated in many cultures where it is not customary that women decide for themselves, for their future, choice of husband or profession, and violence against women are common.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in 1966. The ICESCR, which went in force in 1976, commits its parties to work toward the granting of economic, social, and cultural rights (ESCR) to individuals, including labour rights and the right to health, the right to education, and the right to an adequate standard of living. In 2011, the Covenant had 160 parties. The covenant should be seen as a political agreement on basic duties of a modern welfare state and is thus different from the Declaration of Human Rights – which is perceived as a global ethics always valid regardless of circumstances – although it has a similar background.

In the declaration it is assured that each human has the right to safety and health, to education and possibilities to support themselves. These three parts of a human life – care when being child or elderly; education in childhood and young years; and work to have an income and livelihood – are the basic concerns for social security. A modern welfare state safeguards social security by social insurance programs and provides socials services in case of poverty, old age, disability, unemployment, and others. The means include retirement pensions, disability insurance, and unemployment insurance, to guarantee that each citizen has access to necessities such as food, clothing, housing as well as medical care and social work. The right to social security is recognized both in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Convent on Economic, Social and Cultural rights.

Not everyone can easily adjust to society. A certain percentage (estimated to be about 7% in some societies) suffer from minor or major physical, mental or social handicaps. Also, these individuals need to be taken care of. A smaller or sometimes larger sector of the population live their lives outside established norms. We have crimes; use of drugs, alcoholism; or simply individuals staying outside the established society. Each society has mechanisms to deal with these individuals; but again one should emphasize that also here basic human rights should be respected.

Materials for session 8b

Basic level

History of Universal Human Rights up to WW2 by Moira Rayner.
The Creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Peter Bailey.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Read Baltic Sea Region, chapter 40: Population and Living Standards.
Read Baltic Sea Region, chapter 42: Women and Gender in History in the Baltic Region.

Medium level (widening)

Read Baltic Sea Region, chapter 44: Work and Unemployment.
Read EHSA, Book 3, chapter 9: Economic Development and Work Opportunities in Rural BSR.
Read Baltic Sea Region, chapter 45: Use and Abuse of Tobacco, Alcohol and Narcotics – a Baltic Dilemma.

Advanced level (deepening)

Examine how your country’s social security is organized.

References

Karlsson, I and L. Rydén (eds.). 2012. Rural Development and Land Use. Ecosystem Health and Sustainable Agriculture: Book 3. Baltic University Press. Uppsala.

Maciejewski, W. (ed.) 2002. The Baltic Sea Region – Cultures, Politics, Societies. Baltic University Press, Uppsala.

BUP Sustainable Development Course

8c.
Social sustainability, happiness and the one-planet-life

What do we mean by socially sustainable? Leanne Barron and Erin Gauntlett at Murdoch University of Western Australia say that “Socially sustainable communities are equitable, diverse, connected and democratic and provide a good quality of life.” Is this possible? Will basic human needs be satisfied in a society where the outer conditions is determined by the carrying capacity of the planet and the possibilities of other life forms to thrive as well? Will the inhabitants of a sustainable society be happy and well, or poor and needy? In this sub-session we will examine issues related to the individual. In Chapter 9 on the The political dimensions of sustainability we will look at the issues from the perspective of the society.

Solar panels on the roof of a house in Scotland.

The transition to a sustainable society requires that we live a one-planet-life. We need to reduce our consumption of resources to those available in the long term, to the carrying capacity of the planet. This will certainly include a number of technical adjustments, such as houses needing less heating, and cars not running on fossil fuels. But it will also require changes in lifestyles. An example is the Swedish family, which experimentally got all the technical devices in a new house (low energy house with solar panel and PV cells) to live a low carbon life. When it was time for ski vacation the air trip to the Alps was not allowed within the carbon budget. They had to take the train to the Swedish mountains. Not necessarily worse, but a change. Nor was it possible to use the private car for commuting to work, but rather public transport and biking, and they had fewer dinners with steaks, and had to be more careful with waste sorting.

Basic human needs have been much researched. The model proposed by American psychologist Abraham Maslow already in the 1940s includes five levels of needs: first physiological needs, such as food, water and air; next the individual's safety and security such as personal security, financial security, health and well-being; thirdly social needs including feelings of belongingness, friendship, intimacy, and family; fourth, the need to be respected and to have self-esteem and self-respect; and finally self-actualization: “What a man can be, he must be”. Viktor Frankl, with experience from the holocaust, later added self-transcendence, spiritual needs. Chilean philosopher Manfred Max-Neef, as well as others, have later criticized the level structure and argued that fundamental human needs are non-hierarchical.

From a sustainability perspective it is relevant to observe that none of these needs refer to having many things, consumerism, or travelling over the world, or other parts of modern life which consumes many resources. Also in research on energy use it is clear that what people appreciate the most consumes least energy. Thus being with friends and family or the loved one does not cost much energy, while daily commuting to work, which takes much energy, is not popular. The the world's carrying capacity may then be enough for all of us. Mahatma Gandhi in a famous statement ones said: “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for one person’s greed”, when talking on a society based on Sarvodaya — the well-being of all.

The recently developed happiness research stresses that numerous studies have clearly shown that subjective well-being and material wealth are only loosely coupled. Perceived well-being in western industrialised countries peaked around 1970 or so, while economic development and resource use has continued to increase without resulting in any increase in perceived well-being (See also Chapter 10b). Immaterial factors which contribute to quality of life – such as leisure, having meaning and purpose, relationships, social participation and self-fulfilment – become more and more important. The research area ‘Sustainable Quality of Life’ of Sustainable Europe Research Institute (SERI) stresses these positive relations between sustainable development and a high quality of life. If sustainable development policies and strategies want to be successful, they have to influence our quality of life in positive ways.

2016 UN Human Development Report Quartiles, CC BY-SA 4.0.

There are several indices to monitor human wellbeing. Most established might be the United Nations Human Development Index, HDI, which includes the three indicators child survival, purchasing power and education. Values of HDI are available for most countries in the world. A sustainable society is seen as a society where human well-being is high enough (HDI > 0.8) and ecological footprint low enough (<.1.8 global ha/cap) (See www.footprintnetwork.org). Other more developed indices include the Weighted Index of Social Progress, WISP, by Richard Estes to measure the amount of well-being in different societies, which uses up to 40 different indicators.

To measure of the development of a country most countries use the Gross Domestic Product GDP, which is the total economic turnover, but several alternatives have been proposed. The Genuine Progress Indicator, GPI measures whether a country's growth, increased production of goods, and expanding services have actually resulted in the improvement of the well-being of the people. In GPI negative costs, such as costs for environmental impacts, are subtracted from GDP. The Gross National Happiness, GNH, proposed in Bhutan already in the 1970s based on Buddhist ideals suggests that beneficial development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other. The four pillars of GNH are the promotion of sustainable development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance. Both GNH and GPI are based on the assumption that subjective measures like well-being are more relevant and important than more objective measures like consumption.

Cittaslow Many cities have developed programs for social sustainability, then referring to social and democratic reforms often with a focus on public health. There is however no consensus on what constitutes social sustainability (rather what is not included). You may say it is an attempt to develop a life pattern based on quality rather than quantity. An interesting initiative is the Cittàslow movement. Città is Italian for cities and Cittàslow refers to “slow cities.” Here the efficient fast life style is abandoned for a slower more quality-based pattern, e.g. in food (local food, not global fast food) or traffic patterns, and pursuing the unique qualities of the city. The slow cities movement exist in several countries.

The European value studies (now expanded to world value studies) is a research programme since many years repeatedly investigating the values (ethics) of different cultures and countries. The most important values are quite different in different societies. Very interesting is the analysis of so-called social capital in the countries. Social capital is understood as the trust inhabitants have in each other. It is uniquely high in the Nordic countries, while much less for Eastern and Central Europe, where trust most typically is in the family rather than in society at large. Social capital has been seen as a crucial part of social sustainability.

Earth Charter On the highest level in the Maslowian stairs are the spiritual needs of the individual. Spirituality has a role in a sustainable lifestyle. As we have seen transition to a sustainable society will mean a less materialistic lifestyle, a slower life pace and more time with family and friends. It will also give more importance to the connection with Nature. A sustainable society also underlines the responsibility we all have for our common planet Mother Earth and all life forms. These values may be best expressed in the Earth Charter. The spiritual realm refer to ethics and values (See Chapter 1d) and since the sustainability concept is a normative concept, it is natural to see the spiritual dimension of a society developing with sustainability.