ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a concise overview of the current challenges to defining and measuring social sustainability in urban contexts. The overarching challenge for the topic of social sustainability is the current disconnect that exists between how social sustainability is defined within a wide and diverse multidisciplinary field and what indicators are then used to measure it. The chapter outlines the changing nature of measurable indicators, introducing a taxonomical division between "hard" and "soft" themes and between traditional and emergent social sustainability indicators. The shift toward the analysis of more and arguably elusive 'emerging" concepts in the social sustainability debate may continue for the foreseeable future. Finally, the chapter focuses on emerging themes and indicators is not pursued at the expense of a more in-depth analysis of the traditional pillars of social sustainability, such as equity and poverty, which have received less attention in recent urban development works.
