Social Sustainability HANDBOOK for Community-Builders

Table of Contents

Publishing Information

Title Page

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Basics of Social Sustainability

1. Material and Social Sustainability

2. Social Sustainability as a Choice

3. The Timeless Values of Social Sustainability

4. The Universal Value-Emotions That Make Us Human

5. Decision-Making

6. Socially Sustainable Organizations

A Methodology for Community-Building

7. Initiating a Community Design Team

8. A Framework for Community Building

9. Social Sustainability Design Team

10. Design Team Process

11. Validating Policies and Laws

12. The Continuum of Social Sustainability

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

Biography

Infinity Press

PO Box 2408

Evergreen, Colorado 80437-2408 USA

Website: socialsustainabilityproject.com

E-mail: daniel.raphaelphd@gmail.com

Book design © 2015 Daniel Raphael.

All rights reserved.

Published 2015

Published in The United States of America.

Cover Photograph: Poulsbo Across the Bay Used with permission.

ISBN: 978-1-4951-6048-6 (epub)

ISBN: 978-0-692-41640-2 (paperback)

Library of Congress Catalog Card Information:

Social Sustainability Handbook for Community-Builders, Evergreen, 2015

130 pages

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2015905085

Printed Editions

1st Edition (6 x 9) 1st printing 2015

Social Sustainability

HANDBOOK

For

Community-Builders

By

Daniel Raphael, Ph.D.

Social Sustainability Handbook for Community-Builders, Copyright 2015 Daniel Raphael USA. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

First Edition

Second Printing, 2015

Raphael, Daniel, 1943-

Social Sustainability Handbook for Community-Builders

ISBN: 978-1-4951-6048-6 (epub)

ISBN: 978-0-692-41640-2 (paperback)

LCCN: 2015905085

Daniel Raphael Ph.D.

PO Box 2408

Evergreen, Colorado 80437-2408 USA

daniel.raphaelphd@gmail.com

303.641.1115

Published in The United States of America.

Cover Photograph: Poulsbo Across the Bay Used with permission.

Copyright Mary Moff Saurdiff 2015 USA. Facebook: Merry Designs

Author’s portrait by Kimberly Anderson Photography

To order this book. or Tee Shirts and Coffee Mugs imprinted with the Formula For Peace, please visit:

www.socialsustainabilityproject.com

Infinity Press

is an imprint of Daniel Raphael Consulting and Publishing

PO Box 2408

Evergreen, Colorado 80437 USA

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Basics of Social Sustainability

1. Material and Social Sustainability

Illustration

2. Social Sustainability as a Choice

3. The Timeless Values of Social Sustainability

4. The Universal Value-Emotions That Make Us Human

Illustration

Illustration

5. Decision-Making

6. Socially Sustainable Organizations

Illustration

A Methodology for Community-Builders

7. Initiating a Local Design Team

8. A Framework for Community Building

9. Social Sustainability Design Team

10. Design Team Process

11. Validating Policies and Laws; and the Socially Sustainable Morality of Pending Court Cases

12. The Continuum of Social Sustainability

Illustration

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

Biographical Sketch

Schematic for Validating Social Sustainability. Download PDF at https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0852/9962/files/Schematic_for_Validating_SS.pdf

Schematic for Socially Sustainable Moral Validation. Download PDF at https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0852/9962/files/Schematic_for_SS_Moral_Validtion.pdf

Statement of Findings. Download PDF at https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0852/9962/files/Statement-of-findings.pdf

◈

...the security of civilization itself

still rests on the growing willingness

of one generation

to invest in the welfare

of the next and future generations.

...the security of civilization itself

still rests on the growing willingness

of one generation

to invest in the welfare

of the next and future generations.

Introduction

The emphasis of this book is toward pragmatic applications of social sustainability that can be used by citizens in their local communities to design and implement more sustainable social processes, social policies, organizations and institutions.

The Basics of Social Sustainability, will provide you with the basic concepts of social sustainability. When you get to the second part of the book, A Methodology for Community Building, you will be able to understand how those concepts provide insights into designing and building the community you and your neighbors want.

One of the fundamental concepts of this work is that any real, lasting social change that improves the quality of life of ordinary citizens always begins at the local level. Said another way, hierarchies of authority, control and power have almost never been able to develop and complete social programs to improve the conditions of ordinary citizens. All real social progress usually begins at the local level and is initiated by local citizens.

The second fundamental concept is that there always is a vision for what the local community is attempting to do; and this is followed with an intention that guides the work for developing social progress. It usually rests upon that remarkable 1% of every community who sees what needs to be done and then proceeds to develop solutions with their community members and friends. Vision and intention are then followed by a guiding philosophy, mission statement, and the objectives and goals.

The third fundamental concept is that when the vision, intention, philosophy, mission and objectives are validated by the three core values of social sustainability (quality of life, growth and equality) then there is a real probability that your community work will become sustainable in terms of decades and centuries.

The bottom line for any community that chooses to move toward social sustainability is that

There must be a fair, uniform and universally applicable method for achieving that goal;

There must be a decision-making process that is universally applicable so that anyone can use it to make decisions that support social sustainability locally, nationally or globally;

There must be a democratic process of social sustainability that engages the intelligence and wisdom of local citizens for choice-making among sustainable options, and that is easily accessible on a frequent basis.

The fourth fundamental concept involves the conscious intention of guiding the social evolution of local communities using socially sustainable principles and values, compared to the historic and tragic trial-and-error process of achieving progress. This book is particularly devoted to the practices of peaceful social evolution in democratic societies. We have millennia of history that tell us that violence, revolts and revolutions offer a very difficult way of learning by trial and error, to then be repeated over and over again.

While the historic trial-and-error method is evidence of the old paradigm of societies, politics and economics, designing and testing are evidence of the new paradigm of a consciously evolving society that has chosen to move toward social sustainability. Violence and revolution become historic. The process of design and implementation are patently familiar to almost all of us. Those processes can now be used, as they have been for architecture and engineering, to design and implement tested designs to achieve the conscious social evolution of our communities.

Here is a test question for you. In this moment, now, think about what has been said so far. Consider in this moment a simple and straightforward choice of options for the future. Would you choose the old, proven-to-fail paradigm — or conscious social evolution using a thoughtful process of designing, testing, and building peaceful families, communities, societies and nations with transparent intentions? To put this more pointedly, if your community and society were devastated by some calamity of major proportions, would you reinstall the old social, political and economic paradigm, or would you want to create a paradigm that would become sustainable in terms of many centuries?

◈

Without deviation from the norm,

Progress is not possible.

~ Frank Zappa

"It is by the decisions of individuals

that our species will be

improved or decline.

It is by the decisions of organizations

that our societies, nations and

civilization will be sustained or die."

The Basics of Social Sustainability

Introduction —

Many people talk about sustainability, but few have discerned the two major areas of sustainability. In this Handbook, we will be discussing social sustainability almost exclusively. To do so intelligently, we must answer two questions, What is social sustainability? and, How does it differ from material sustainability?

How is social sustainability different from survival, existence and social stability? Is it measureable, and if so, how? What choices are available? And, what do we use to guide our decisions? What makes it important? Why would a society decide to choose to become socially sustainable? What provides the foundation for social sustainability? Lastly, does trial and error play any part when a community chooses to explore the development of social sustainability?

While the human species in general understands the fundamentals of material survival and human existence in the short-term, it has not yet learned how to transform itself into sustainable societies. Only a society that is able to question its existence and consciously make decisions to apply the ancient values that have sustained our species for tens of thousands of years will be able to transcend its past.

◈

"There are no shortcuts

for a civilization to

become sustainable.

Only sound intention, moral fortitude

and unflinching perseverance

by citizens

offer the capability of

moving families, communities and whole societies in that direction."

1. Material and Social Sustainability

Sustainability is a word that has been discussed for several decades, but very few people understand the two sides of sustainability. The illustration below describes this very simply;

Material Sustainability —

• Is quantity-object based.

• The resource for material sustainability is the material environment.

→ Natural resources: