Towards Understanding Social Sustainability

Although it is widely accepted to differentiate between economic, ecological, and social dimensions for sustainability, social concerns are often treated with secondary importance. In line with this, also authors from Information Systems (IS) tend, in addition to its economic obligations, to focus on the natural environment and rather neglect the social dimension or do not position their research as such. Against this backdrop, we (1) examine the status quo of IS research on social sustainability, (2) organize corresponding knowledge through a taxonomy, and (3) present specific IS-roles that foster social sustainability. Our findings help researchers and practitioners in classifying current initiatives, getting ideas for future opportunities, and moving towards an understanding of how to employ IS to achieve social goals. Moreover, this study poses a foundation for deriving relevant research questions and advanced IS-theories for social concerns. Overall, we hope to nudge discussions on this valuable pillar of sustainability.