Some Critical Reflections on the Measurement of Social Sustainability and Well-Being in Complex Societies

The aim of this discussion paper is to raise awareness of the conceptual and practical limits of mainstream practices in social measurement and to suggest possible directions for social indicator construction, in view of effectively supporting policies for social sustainability and well-being promot...

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Autores principales:	Alberto Arcagni, Marco Fattore, Filomena Maggino, Giorgio Vittadini
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	complexity non-aggregative approach social measurement social sustainability synthetic indicators well-being Environmental effects of industries and plants TD194-195 Renewable energy sources TJ807-830 Environmental sciences GE1-350
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/d907160306e649a093f33d2e71d5ae49
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:d907160306e649a093f33d2e71d5ae49
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:d907160306e649a093f33d2e71d5ae492021-11-25T19:03:14ZSome Critical Reflections on the Measurement of Social Sustainability and Well-Being in Complex Societies10.3390/su1322126792071-1050https://doaj.org/article/d907160306e649a093f33d2e71d5ae492021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/22/12679https://doaj.org/toc/2071-1050The aim of this discussion paper is to raise awareness of the conceptual and practical limits of mainstream practices in social measurement and to suggest possible directions for social indicator construction, in view of effectively supporting policies for social sustainability and well-being promotion. We start with a review of the epistemological issues raised by the measurement of social phenomena, investigate the notion of social complexity, and discuss the critical link between it and measurement. We then suggest that social indicators should be primarily designed to build structural syntheses of the data, unfolding the patterns and stylizing the complexity of social phenomena, rather than computed pursuing numerical precision, through hardly interpretable aggregated measures. This calls for tools and algorithms capable of rendering structural information, preserving the essential traits of complexity and overcoming the limitations of classical aggregation procedures. We provide some examples along this line, using real data pertaining to regional well-being in OECD countries.Alberto ArcagniMarco FattoreFilomena MagginoGiorgio VittadiniMDPI AGarticlecomplexitynon-aggregative approachsocial measurementsocial sustainabilitysynthetic indicatorswell-beingEnvironmental effects of industries and plantsTD194-195Renewable energy sourcesTJ807-830Environmental sciencesGE1-350ENSustainability, Vol 13, Iss 12679, p 12679 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	complexity non-aggregative approach social measurement social sustainability synthetic indicators well-being Environmental effects of industries and plants TD194-195 Renewable energy sources TJ807-830 Environmental sciences GE1-350
spellingShingle	complexity non-aggregative approach social measurement social sustainability synthetic indicators well-being Environmental effects of industries and plants TD194-195 Renewable energy sources TJ807-830 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Alberto Arcagni Marco Fattore Filomena Maggino Giorgio Vittadini Some Critical Reflections on the Measurement of Social Sustainability and Well-Being in Complex Societies
description	The aim of this discussion paper is to raise awareness of the conceptual and practical limits of mainstream practices in social measurement and to suggest possible directions for social indicator construction, in view of effectively supporting policies for social sustainability and well-being promotion. We start with a review of the epistemological issues raised by the measurement of social phenomena, investigate the notion of social complexity, and discuss the critical link between it and measurement. We then suggest that social indicators should be primarily designed to build structural syntheses of the data, unfolding the patterns and stylizing the complexity of social phenomena, rather than computed pursuing numerical precision, through hardly interpretable aggregated measures. This calls for tools and algorithms capable of rendering structural information, preserving the essential traits of complexity and overcoming the limitations of classical aggregation procedures. We provide some examples along this line, using real data pertaining to regional well-being in OECD countries.
format	article
author	Alberto Arcagni Marco Fattore Filomena Maggino Giorgio Vittadini
author_facet	Alberto Arcagni Marco Fattore Filomena Maggino Giorgio Vittadini
author_sort	Alberto Arcagni
title	Some Critical Reflections on the Measurement of Social Sustainability and Well-Being in Complex Societies
title_short	Some Critical Reflections on the Measurement of Social Sustainability and Well-Being in Complex Societies
title_full	Some Critical Reflections on the Measurement of Social Sustainability and Well-Being in Complex Societies
title_fullStr	Some Critical Reflections on the Measurement of Social Sustainability and Well-Being in Complex Societies
title_full_unstemmed	Some Critical Reflections on the Measurement of Social Sustainability and Well-Being in Complex Societies
title_sort	some critical reflections on the measurement of social sustainability and well-being in complex societies
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/d907160306e649a093f33d2e71d5ae49
work_keys_str_mv	AT albertoarcagni somecriticalreflectionsonthemeasurementofsocialsustainabilityandwellbeingincomplexsocieties AT marcofattore somecriticalreflectionsonthemeasurementofsocialsustainabilityandwellbeingincomplexsocieties AT filomenamaggino somecriticalreflectionsonthemeasurementofsocialsustainabilityandwellbeingincomplexsocieties AT giorgiovittadini somecriticalreflectionsonthemeasurementofsocialsustainabilityandwellbeingincomplexsocieties
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Some Critical Reflections on the Measurement of Social Sustainability and Well-Being in Complex Societies

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