1. Is this none of the contractor’s business? Social Sustainability Challenges informed by popular literature

• In Sweden many suburbs built at the end of the 1960s are in need of physical renovation to comply with newenergy regulations. Some of these neighbourhoods face serious social challenges which also need to be tackled.The three largest Swedish contractors, usually very active in providing technical and environmentally friendlyrenovation, claim now they can provide social sustainability solutions on a commercial basis. For many yearsthe problems of deprived suburbs have attracted the attention and the care of the public institutions, and thoughmany initiatives have been carried out to address these issues, results have been sometimes quite limited. To discussthe social challenges linked to suburbs’ renovation, an alternative method is proposed: the analysis of literaryaccounts. The goal is to assess whether stories relating the lives of residents in deprived Swedish suburbs caninform and therefore contribute to the development of socially sustainable solutions. Referring to the literatureon social sustainability, this qualitative and explorative study uses critical discourse analysis as the method.Results suggest that focusing on renovated housing, employment, social services and leisure activities is notenough to rehabilitate disadvantaged neighbourhoods. They also indicate some specific problems linked to thebuilt environment that contractors could help to solve.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

social sustainability

Contractors

discourse analysis

urban renovation

literary accounts

Publikations- och innehållstyp

art (ämneskategori)

ref (ämneskategori)