Understanding the social dimension of sustainability in agriculture: a critical review of sustainability assessment tools

The number of sustainability assessment tools in agriculture has been increasing rapidly. However, a common understanding of what should be assessed as sustainability or as a sustainable state of agriculture is still lacking, in particular for the social dimension. We performed a qualitative content analysis of 87 farm-related sustainability assessment tools to examine how these tools defined and operationalized the social dimension of sustainability. We further analysed a subset of tools on the used indicators. The results clearly showed that as the backgrounds and objectives of the tools differed, so did their understanding of which contents should be integrated into the social dimension and how the topics of the social dimension should be operationalized. As the geographical ranges of application varied, so did the perceptions of which standard should be utilized to evaluate what social sustainability means on a farm. Production systems differ strongly over the globe. Tools therefore often neglect to define social sustainability and lack stringent operationalization. Two major inconsistencies could be seen in the scope that was covered by the tools and the sustainability standard: Whereas, for example, some tools base their sustainability assessments on human rights and working rights according to the United Nations and International Labour Organization conventions, others assess farmer perceptions of life quality. Although recurring topics such as labour conditions, life quality and societal impacts were identified, a need exists to take a step back and clearly frame social sustainability in agriculture from a conceptual perspective.