IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i13p5702-d1428445.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Human City: The Development of an Easy-to-Use Assessment Method Calibrated to Swedish Conditions

Author

Listed:
  • William Woxnerud

    (Independent Researcher, 661 30 Säffle, Sweden)

  • Karim Najar

    (Department of Biotechnology and Health, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, 114 28 Stockholm, Sweden
    Department of Engineering and Chemical Sciences, Karlstad University, 651 88 Karlstad, Sweden)

  • Ola Nylander

    (Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden)

Abstract

Sustainability encompasses three dimensions: environmental, economic, and social. Among these dimensions, social sustainability presents the most challenging definition and measurement, leading to its frequent neglect. There is therefore a need to increase the measurability of social sustainability. There are several methods for measuring social sustainability, but we can broadly categorize them into two groups: those that are simple and easy to use, and those that are more comprehensive but more challenging to use. Furthermore, there can be a case for increasing the local adaptation of assessment methods regarding social sustainability. In this study, a new easy-to-use assessment method is developed and calibrated to Swedish conditions. We created a total of 40 questions, evenly distributed across 8 categories: architecture and aesthetics, places to meet, social infrastructure, accessibility, traffic, security, senses and experience, and development. The new method strives to be evidence-based and adapted to Swedish conditions. The study resulted in an easy-to-use assessment method adapted to local conditions that can be suitable for simple evaluations of social sustainability in the design of public places. It can be particularly useful when laymen need to understand where the place’s strengths and weaknesses lie in a social context. Since the method is based on subjective assessments, an interesting future study could investigate whether different people can achieve the same results with the developed assessment method.

Suggested Citation

  • William Woxnerud & Karim Najar & Ola Nylander, 2024. "The Human City: The Development of an Easy-to-Use Assessment Method Calibrated to Swedish Conditions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-28, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:13:p:5702-:d:1428445
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/13/5702/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/13/5702/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barrero, Jose Maria & Bloom, Nick & Davis, Steven J., 2020. "Why Working From Home Will Stick," SocArXiv wfdbe, Center for Open Science.
    2. Robert Rosenberger, 2020. "On hostile design: Theoretical and empirical prospects," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(4), pages 883-893, March.
    3. Anna Furberg & Rickard Arvidsson & Sverker Molander, 2018. "Live and Let Die? Life Cycle Human Health Impacts from the Use of Tire Studs," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-13, August.
    4. David Chapman & Agneta Larsson, 2019. "Toward an Integrated Model for Soft-Mobility," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-15, September.
    5. Mette Deding & Trine Filges & Jos Van Ommeren, 2009. "Spatial Mobility And Commuting: The Case Of Two‐Earner Households," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 113-147, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anni Orola & Anna Härri & Jarkko Levänen & Ville Uusitalo & Stig Irving Olsen, 2022. "Assessing WELBY Social Life Cycle Assessment Approach through Cobalt Mining Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-26, September.
    2. Jennifer Roberts & Karl Taylor, 2017. "Intra-household commuting choices and local labour markets," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 69(3), pages 734-757.
    3. Ro’i Zultan & Eldar Dadon, 2023. "Missing the forest for the trees: when monitoring quantitative measures distorts task prioritization," Working Papers 2319, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Economics.
    4. Petra Nieken & Sven Walther, 2024. "Honesty in Virtual Communication," CESifo Working Paper Series 11094, CESifo.
    5. Pierpaolo Parrotta & Dario Pozzoli & Mariola Pytlikova, 2014. "The nexus between labor diversity and firm’s innovation," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 27(2), pages 303-364, April.
    6. Alloysius Joko PURWANTO & Ridwan Dewayanto RUSLI & Hafis Pratama Rendra GRAHA & Sirichai KOONAPHAPDEELERT & Reza Miftahul ULUM & Citra Endah Nur SETYAWATI & Nadiya PRANINDITA & Ryan Wiratama BHASKARA, 2025. "Global Pandemic Shocks, Foreign Exposure and Firm Productivity: Evidence from Korean Firm-level Data," Working Papers DP-2024-38, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    7. Jean-Marc Bourgeon & José de Sousa & Alexis Noir-Luhalwe, 2022. "Social Distancing and Risk Taking: Evidence from a Team Game Show [Distanciation sociale et prise de risque : Les résultats d'un jeu d'équipe]," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03792423, HAL.
    8. Cevat Giray Aksoy & Jose Maria Barrero & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis & Mathias Dolls & Pablo Zarate, 2023. "Time Savings When Working from Home," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 113, pages 597-603, May.
    9. Elstner, Steffen & Grimme, Christian & Kecht, Valentin & Lehmann, Robert, 2022. "The diffusion of technological progress in ICT," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    10. Bergeaud, Antonin & Eyméoud, Jean-Benoît & Garcia, Thomas & Henricot, Dorian, 2023. "Working from home and corporate real estate," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    11. Vij, Akshay & Souza, Flavio F. & Barrie, Helen & Anilan, V. & Sarmiento, Sergio & Washington, Lynette, 2023. "Employee preferences for working from home in Australia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 782-800.
    12. Markus Nagler & Johannes Rincke & Erwin Winkler, 2024. "Working from home, commuting, and gender," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(3), pages 1-23, September.
    13. Titan Alon & Sena Coskun & Matthias Doepke & David Koll & Michèle Tertilt, 2022. "From Mancession to Shecession: Women’s Employment in Regular and Pandemic Recessions," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(1), pages 83-151.
    14. Gopalakrishnan, Balagopal & Jacob, Joshy & Srivastava, Jagriti, 2022. "Fishing in muddy waters: Mergers and acquisitions during uncertainty," IIMA Working Papers WP 2022-09-02, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    15. Martha J. Bailey & Janet Currie & Hannes Schwandt, 2022. "The Covid-19 Baby Bump: The Unexpected Increase in U.S. Fertility Rates in Response to the Pandemic," Working Papers 2022-30, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    16. Norlander, Peter & Erickson, Christopher, 2022. "The Role of Institutions in Job Teleworkability Before and After the Covid-19 Pandemic," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1172, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    17. Redding, Stephen, 2023. "The Economics of Cities: From Theory to Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 17839, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Böhnen, Carina & Kuhnimhof, Tobias, 2024. "Working from home and commuter travel in germany – panel data analysis of long-term effects," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    19. Marino, Marianna & Parrotta, Pierpaolo & Pozzoli, Dario, 2012. "Does labor diversity promote entrepreneurship?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 15-19.
    20. Azmat, Ghazala & Hensvik, Lena & Rosenqvist, Olof, 2020. "Workplace presenteeism, job substitutability and gender inequality," Working Paper Series 2020:9, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:13:p:5702-:d:1428445. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.