Social Value in the Built Environment

The built environment sector has a major impact on the lives of people, the prosperity of businesses, and the resilience, health and well-being of communities through planning, design, construction and management of urban environments, buildings and infrastructure.

The aim of this series is to present a sequence of books that address the many ways in which ‘social value’ can be created (and potentially destroyed) in and by the built environment.

The series defines social value as the impact that built environment has on the lives of people living in communities it builds and those who work in the sector.

Recognising the critically important contribution that the built environment makes to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals globally, the series will be multidisciplinary and international in outlook. It will address questions of both theory and practice, and it will be broad in scope, reporting new empirical work, ground-breaking approaches and exposing good and bad practice through real-life case studies.

The series will cover many subjects including, but not limited to:

• Community involvement and development – social value created by community engagement, supporting local charities and causes, being a good neighbour, and providing employment and business opportunities for community members and local businesses through local purchasing and employment and training activities, etc.
• Design – social value created through urban design, landscape design, and architecture, covering subjects such as place making, participatory and sustainable design, and Indigenous design.
• Urban planning – social value created through inclusive and healthy cities, sustainable planning, affordable and social housing, addressing homelessness, etc.
• Environmental management practices – social value created from pollution prevention, emissions reduction, use of sustainable renewable resources, life-cycle management, using environmentally sound technologies and practices, and sustainable procurement, waste management, etc.
• Human rights – social value created through equal opportunities and managing diversity and inclusion policies and practices, respecting individuals’ rights to freedom of association, opinion and expression, and respecting economic, social and cultural rights, etc.
• Procurement – social procurement practice and policy, Indigenous procurement, responsible purchasing and sourcing, cross-sector collaboration, community benefit clauses, etc.
• Social enterprise – social enterprise ecosystems, development, enablers and barriers, social innovation, social policy frameworks, social impact measurement, etc.
• Managing people and labour practices – social value created through the provision of a just, safe and healthy work environment for workers in the industry by way of a living wage and benefits such as a pension, holidays, work-life balance, sick pay and social protection; supporting a dialogue between employers and employees, and providing opportunities for training and development, etc.
• Organizational governance – social value created from accountability and transparency in decision making, responsible use of financial, natural and human resources, considering all key stakeholders in decision making, including minority groups, monitoring and reporting of all business activities, both positive and negative, etc.
• Fair business practices – respect for the law, practicing accountability and fairness in business relationships, social procurement, and responsible sourcing, etc.
• Consumer issues – social value secured through the provision of healthy and safe end products, buildings and infrastructure, giving accurate information about projects, products and services, promoting sustainable consumption, designing products which can be reused, repaired or recycled, reducing packaging waste, and protecting consumer privacy when handling personal data, etc.

We are seeking expressions of interest from thought-leaders and researchers who are interested in social value relating to the planning, design, construction and management of the built environment. We are particularly interested in books that include scholarship from practice, and cross-disciplinary co-authorship is encouraged but not a requirement.

Expressions of interest should include your name and contact details, information on the book’s subject, an indicative table of contents, an estimated completion date of the manuscript, and target audience. Edited books are appropriate to the series, but we are particularly interested in commissioning authored books and research monographs.

Please send expressions of interest by email to the series editors: Dr Ani Raiden ([email protected]) and Professor Martin Loosemore ([email protected]).

Please note that the series editors have no role in the peer-review or Routledge’s final decision. All proposals need to go through peer-review and be accepted by Routledge before a contract is issued.