The success of the network depends partly on members’ ability to recognize how they use language when writing and talking about social sustainability.

For this reason, a linguistic assessment will be conducted throughout the life of the network to determine how the language of the network affects network dialogue and progress.

Video transcript

My name is Liz Miller and I’m an applied linguist. My participation in the network involves analysis of the language of the network. I’ll be looking closely at the language produced by network members as they talk or write about social sustainability.

We know that people think, talk and write about social sustainability somewhat differently depending on their research backgrounds or the kinds of sustainability applications that they’re involved in. And so that’s why I’ll be looking at the language of the network members, trying to understand what those differences are and what the implications might be.

When you register with the network for the first time, you’ll be prompted to give your consent to allow your articles, your blogs, your conference presentations, conference discussions—any language that is made public to all network members—to be included in the language analysis.

I believe that this analysis will move us all forward towards meeting the primary goal of the network, which is to arrive at a clearer definition and a better understanding of social sustainability and to understand what we all mean when we use that term.