Social and Economic Perspectives on Sustainability

  e term “Sustainability” possesses numerous meanings for different people and various circumstances and it is a common mistake to define sustainability strictly in terms of “environmental sustainability”. is misconception believes the major flaw of the contemporary pattern of development is simply its destruction of the environment. Handling “sustainability” only from an environmental standpoint is a superficial view that needs to be assessed carefully and underlined correctly. As A. D. Basiago suggests, “…[t]he protection of natural systems represents not an overarching panacea for achieving economic vitality and social justice, but a necessary component of an entire system for achieving economic, social and environmental ‘sustainability’, in which economic reforms and social reforms are as important.” e chapters included in this volume are composed of some selected significant contributions from the first International Sustainability Congress organized by International Center of Sustainability (ICS), 1-3 December 2016, in Istanbul, Turkey. All chapters are peer-reviewed by both the editors and at least two independent scholars from fields relevant to the manuscript's subject area. ICS is a research and academic center for sustainability founded in 2015 and dedicated to build resilience of communities and ecosystems to environmental and socio-economic risks. ICS has an integrated approach and specifies sustainability not only from an environmental point of view but also in terms of socio-economic process. Its mission is to produce information as well as enhance research and practice at Micro and Macro levels in Sustainable Development with a holistic and a cross-disciplinary approach.