Date of Award
Spring 2019
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Department/Major
Sustainability
First Advisor
Dr. Meghann Jarchow
Second Advisor
Dr. Mandie Weinandt
Third Advisor
Dr. Michael Granaas
Keywords
sustainability, well-being, pillars of sustainability, social issues
Abstract
The concept of sustainability combines environmental, social, and economic factors to ensure the survival and prosperity of future generations for the Earth. People most often associate only environmental issues with sustainability rather than economic issues or social equity movements. The purpose of this thesis was to determine if people associated social equity movements with sustainability. This is important because social equity movements move towards creating an overall greater social well-being of individuals which is necessary for prosperity of the future; a key concept in sustainability. To test this, I interviewed twelve individuals: three faculty with expertise in sustainability, three faculty outside of sustainability, three students with expertise in sustainability, and three students outside of sustainability. They were asked to provide a definition of sustainability, asked who can participate in sustainability activities, and then asked if they thought specific social equity movements were related to sustainability. I hypothesized that the sustainability experts, faculty, and women would associate more social equity movements with sustainability. The results showed that women, sustainability experts, and students had higher association rates of social equity movements to sustainability than the other groups.
Recommended Citation
Abele, Rachel, "The Role of Social Well-Being in Sustainability" (2019). Honors Thesis. 36.
https://red.library.usd.edu/honors-thesis/36