Advancing Evidence-Based Social Sustainability in Software Engineering: A Research Roadmap
For software engineering researchers and practitioners, this paper provides a conceptual foundation and roadmap for addressing the neglected dimension of social sustainability, but it is an incremental review without empirical validation.
The paper reviews definitions of social sustainability in software engineering, identifies key aspects like equity and well-being, and proposes a definition and research roadmap for measuring and integrating social sustainability into practice.
Social sustainability in software development means creating and maintaining systems that promote pro-social values (e.g., human well-being, equity), both now and in the future. However, social sustainability lacks clear conceptual and methodological foundations, and often takes a back seat to speed and profit. This paper therefore reports a narrative review of existing definitions of social sustainability in software development and identifies key aspects of social sustainability including social equity, well-being, and community cohesion. Challenges around measuring and integrating social sustainability into practice are conceptually analyzed. The paper then proposes a comprehensive definition of social sustainability and outlines a roadmap for measuring and integrating social sustainability into software engineering processes.