Social Well-Being, Cohesion and Human Health

1. Social Well-Being, Cohesion and Human Health Ron McQuaid & Ariel Bergmann Employment Research Institute Napier University Edinburgh Presented Bordeaux, 2008

2. Sustainable Development • Three Pillars of Sustainability • Environmental • Economic • Social

3. Economic Sustainability • Reasonably well developed, but still very general and not exact: e.g. Cost Benefit Analysis Project Appraisal Private v Social costs, discount rates, etc. Concerned partly with economic growth

4. Social Sustainability • No agreed definition: a society that has social justice, is persistent and thrives ….. • “Development (and/or growth) that is compatible with harmonious evolution of civil society, fostering an environment conductive to the compatible cohabitation of culturally and socially diverse groups while at the same time encouraging social integration, with improvements in the quality of life for all segments of the population.” Polese and Stren (2000, 15-16)

5. Social Sustainability • It includes (economic, social and environment dimensions): • Quality of life issues • Equality and social justice • Fair distribution of benefits and costs • Access to social resources to allow them to participate fully in society • Individuals have opportunity to reach full potential and overcome disadvantage • Promotes diversity while being inclusive

6. Social Sustainability ( cont.) • Multi-generational timescale • Primarily implemented and measured at the local community level • Importantly it is multi-dimensional (difficult/ impossible to get a single measure such as monetarisation measure) • SIA is not just the inclusion of the social impacts of environmental policies

7. The sources of unsustainable development are not always the result of greed, ignorance or irrational choices. Rather, they may be the result of unintentional accumulation of rational, well-intended decisions made by people who are operating within societies whose political and economic systems make it difficult to act in ways that are responsible to all those affected in the present and in the future.

8. European Union Policy Background • The Lisbon Strategy (introduces social dimension, especially as related to work) • Gothenburg Strategy • European Union Sustainable Development Strategy 2006 • Social Agenda 2005-2010 • European Employment Strategy and the Luxembourg Process

9. Council of the EU • Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs (EPSCO) • The Environment Council

10. Impact Categories/Issues • Governance • Employment • Community Development • Health and Well-being • Culture and heritage

11. Impact Categories/Issues (cont.) Cross-cutting all issues are concerns for: • participation of affected people in decisions • distribution of social benefits and costs • equality • social justice

12. Governance(public participation, social inclusion, and public attitudes) Does the policy: • impact on the involvement of groups and stakeholders to participate in governance? • impact on social institutions or public institutions and administrations in their ability and responsibilities to governance? • impact on a group or the individual’s access to the legal justice system? • impact on the public being informed about issues within their community? • impact on the privacy of individuals and households?

13. Employment(employment at the local community level) Does the policy: • facilitate creation of jobs or the loss of jobs? • impact a specific class of workers or households? • affect the demand for labour? • impact on the functioning of the labour market? • impact on the type and quality of jobs? • impact on the health, safety and dignity of workers?

14. Community Development(local social benefits derived from community participation in commercial activities and policy) Does the policy: • impact on the level of social capital and activism by non-governmental groups or individuals? • impact on social inclusion, social cohesion, and distribution of equity and benefits within society? • impact on the liveability and sense of community wellbeing?

15. Health and Well-being(1)(physical health and emotional sense of enjoying and achieving in life) Does the policy: • impact on the quality of soil, surface water, and ground water? The quality and sufficiency of drinking water is of special importance. What are the health gains or risks that may occur? • impact on the occupational health risks that may occur with the development?

16. Health and Well-being(2) • impact development or change of land use on recreational uses in the area and the effects on the local community as well as non-local visitation to the area? • impact development on local infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, waste disposal, sanitation, and emergency response capability? Will there be sufficient capacity? • impact equitable distribution of the health risks, disadvantages and benefits from development? What is the desirable distribution of the gains and losses among social groups?

17. Culture and heritage (1)(culture is the total range of activities and ideas of a group of people with shared traditions which are transmitted and reinforced by members of a group) (heritage can be explained as all the things, places and ideas passed on from the past which are of special cultural significance to the life of a community, including both cultural and human-built elements)

18. Culture and heritage (2) Does the policy: • impact on cultural or heritage issues in a community • impact on sites and features • impact on activities, practices, skills and events • impact on meanings, identities, and representations of importance to the community • Impacts on indigenous peoples

19. Sustainability Impact Assessment Tools (SAIT) • Currently in development • SENSOR • EFORWOOD • PLUREL • SEAMLESS

20. Modelling Social Impacts • Identify the social impacts of a policy, who is affected and the timescale • Causal Model • Qualitative Assessment • Impact Matrix • Measuring factors such as wellbeing?

21. Example of 1 issue:- Demography

23. Balance Sheet Approach • There is no common matrix by which all social impact issues can be measured! • History of ignoring issues that could not be quantified numerically or monetarised • Cost/Benefit Analysis will not work List all benefits/gains v. all costs/losses • Consider distributional effects, equality and social justice • Weighting of measures

24. Indicators e.g. Andrea Colantonio (2007) Social 1. Access to resources 2. Community needs ( e.g. are communities able to articulate their needs?) 3. Conflicts mitigation 4. Cultural promotion 5. Education 6. Elderly and aging 7. Enabling knowledge management (including access to E-knowledge) 8. Freedom 9. Gender equity 10. Happiness 11. Health 12. Identity of the community/civic pride 13. Image transformation and neighbourhood perceptions

25. Indicators Social cont. 14. Integration of newcomers (especially foreign in-migrants) and residents 15. Leadership 16. Justice and equality 17. Leisure and sport facilities 18. Less able people 19. Population change 20. Poverty eradication 21. Quality of Life 22. Security and Crime 23. Skills development 24. Social diversity and multiculturalism 25. Well being

26. Indicators Socio-Institutional 26. Capacity Building 27. Participation and empowerment 28. Trust, voluntary organisations and local networks (also know as Social Capital) Socio-economic 29. Economic security 30. Employment 31. Informal activities/economy 32. Partnership and collaboration Socio-environmental 33. Inclusive design 34. Infrastructures 35. Environmental Health 36. Housing (quality and tenure mix) 37. Transport 38. Spatial/environmental inequalities

27. Indicators - criticisms For example: Difficult to measure indicators Time horizon Counterfactual – did it make a difference? Combined effects of lots of indicators Σ>parts Context is important - different cultural interpretations of social and different contexts - But it is easy to criticise and hard to present something better!

28. How to Structure Chapters?Social Well-Being, Cohesion and Human Health 2 proposed methods of presenting material • 5 chapters • 1 chapter with subsections

29. Method 1 (5 chapters) Chapter 11. Social well-being, cohesion and human health impacts - background and policy context for the social pillar - assessment tools - modelling social impacts Chapter 12. Governance Chapter 13. Employment and social inclusion Chapter 14. Equality and basic rights Chapter 15. Health impact Chapter ? EU Policy

30. Method 2 (1 chapter with subsections) Chapter 11. Social well-being, cohesion and human health impacts § 11.1 Introduction and policy background § 11.2 Governance § 11.3 Employment § 11.4 Community Development § 11.5 Health and Well-being § 11.6 Culture and heritage § 11.7 Assessment tools § 11.8 Modelling social impacts

31. A Final Comment The Economics Pillar is still developing as the principle of sustainable development is difficult to analyse as it is contrary to certain key assumptions/goals of traditional economics - weak substitutability - discount rates - economic agents - (sustainable) growth as the main objective

32. A Final Comment cont. The Social Pillar is the least developed area of impact assessment - newest (<10-20 years) No systematic model - least developed theoretically due to difficulty in comparing quality issues/impacts with other quality issues & with quantifiable issues/impacts; holistic v reductionalist views etc. - scale of community being analysed dramatically changes the possible matrices and impact issues Is sustainability the core or is social an ‘add on’ to environment and economic?

33. Thank you Employment Research Institute Napier University, Edinburgh Institute website: http://www2.napier.ac.uk/depts/eri/home.htm

34. Employment Increase Increase in Population Wages Increase Rents Increase Low Income Workers Displaced from Housing Diagram: Causal model of impacts – increased timber harvesting Policy: increase timber harvest

35. Chart Combined Qualitative Assessment and Impact Matrix Analysis Policy/Project Employment/Wages Population Rent Employment increases (large) * Local population employed - 50 jobs *Non-local population employed - 15 jobs (skilled or experienced to manage expansion) Likelihood - 60% All unemployed workers with appropriate skills set are likely to gain full time employment Population increase (large) Likelihood - 50% Rent increase (large) Likelihood - 60% Rent increase (small) Likelihood - 30% Population increase (small) Likelihood - 40% Employment increases (small) * Local population employed - 25 jobs *Non-local population employed - 5 jobs (skilled or experienced to manage expansion) Likelihood - 40% Some unemployed workers with appropriate skills set are likely to gain full time employment Rent stable -no change Likelihood - 10% Population decrease (small) Likelihood - 10% Wages increase (large) *15% average wage increase Likelihood - 50% *Upward wage pressure through out timber sector *Substantial improvement for unemployed as wages are greater than minimum level Wages increase (small) *15% average wage increase Likelihood - 50% *Upward wage pressure through out timber sector *Substantial improvement for unemployed as wages are greater than minimum level

36. Definition of Rural Regions and Typology • Assessing the pertinence of the OECD classification: • Simple, transparent, takes account of internal patterns within regions, widely recognised • But major weaknesses include heterogeneity of NUTS 3 regions, ignores differences in “economic potential” of regions, density thresholds are arbitrary • 3 alternative options (all incorporating a peripherality index) are presented and assessed, two of these give better discrimination between different types of rural region (assessed by anova test) • Typology according to labour market performance: • Simple transparent disaggregative approach • Separate demography and economic activity/unemployment typologies • Combined typology – reveals relatively favourable labour market situation in PU regions, SR and PR more mixed: fewer strong performance regions, more moderately performing regions, and roughly the same proportion of weak regions.

37. Bottom-line Objective • Identify the impacts of a potential policy or proposed project To answer the question: What can be done to maximise and distribute the social benefits while mitigating the negative impacts/costs to individuals or groups within society?