Sustainable development: beyond national welfare. Possible models for welfare systems in the twenty-first century

ABSTRACT This short essay aims at introducing the International Review of Sociology monographic issue, devoted to the notion of sustainability. The topic is incredibly relevant in the contemporary scientific and political debate, in a time when environmental issues are overlapping the worldwide spread of demand for justice and equality. Within this framework, as a first step I try to list the numerous meanings of the notion ‘sustainability’ and highlight how the physical-biological scope necessarily intersects the social and political aspects of this notion. The second step consists of highlighting how sustainability is also related to innovation, both technological and social. Finally, I focus the other object of this issue: the role of welfare systems in achieving and defending environmental and social sustainability. This section of the work will include the presentation of the other papers, which focus either on theoretical studies on welfare systems or in case studies, which focus on welfare sustainable policies in the domains of health, migration and generational equity.