Measuring social sustainability with the developed MCSA model: Güzelyurt case

Abstract

The aim of the study is to develop a sample scale to measure social sustainability in an urban context. Social sustainability is an important component of sustainable development and it gained importance in the 1990s with awareness of the rising welfare of the society. The definitions, criteria, and the measurement system of social sustainability are still vague. In this context, this article bridges the gap in measuring social sustainability in an urban context and it proposes a model called Measurement of the City from Social Aspects (MCSA). The developed model was applied to the city of Güzelyurt, which has continuously experienced immigration from past to present. Quantitative research method was used in the research and the data was collected through interviews and a questionnaire survey, conducted with 400 local residents. The proposed model was tested in terms of model fit using confirmatory factor analysis. Also, the construct validity and discriminant validity of the model were tested. Research results indicate that the developed MCSA model works and it is suitable to be applied to other cities for measuring their social sustainability. Thus, the problems in the social aspects of the cities could be revealed and solutions could be generated to ensure the social sustainability of the cities.