Sustainable development is a widely used term, which has been increasingly infl uential on UK planning, housing and urban policy in recent years. Debates about sustainability no longer consider sustainability solely as an environmental concern, but also incorporate economic and social dimensions. However, while a social dimension to sustainability is widely accepted, exactly what this means has not been very clearly defi ned or agreed. This paper aims to address this disparity through a detailed exploration and defi nition of the concept of social sustainability within the urban context. The relationship between urban form and social sustainability is explored and two main dimensions of social sustainability are identifi ed and discussed in detail: equitable access and the sustainability of the community itself.

Frith has argued that people with autism show "weak central coherence," an unusual bias toward piecemeal rather than configurational processing and a reduction in the normal tendency to process information in context. However, the precise cognitive and neurological mechanisms underlying weak central coherence are still unknown. We propose the hypothesis that the features of autism associated with weak central coherence result from a reduction in the integration of specialized local neural networks in the brain caused by a deficit in temporal binding. The visuoperceptual anomalies associated with weak central coherence may be attributed to a reduction in synchronization of high-frequency gamma activity between local networks processing local features. The failure to utilize context in language processing in autism can be explained in similar terms. Temporal binding deficits could also contribute to executive dysfunction in autism and to some of the deficits in socialization and communication.

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Planning and urban policies emphasise ‘sustainability’, but claims that ‘compact cities' are more socially sustainable and acceptable have been controversial and subject to limited empirical testing. After a brief review of the concepts and debate, we set out new empirical evidence based on household surveys linked to neighbourhood physical, map-based, and sociodemographic data for five British cities. Statistical models are developed to account for systematic variations in the main social sustainability outcomes. The results are considered both in terms of the role of particular urban form and locational measures, but also in terms of the broader patterns of effects of packages of measures. Outcomes relating to residential satisfaction, stability, neighbourhood environment, and safety are all shown to be lower in higher density/central places, but it is also shown that a good deal of this apparent effect is due to social and demographic factors. Interaction with neighbours and participation in groups is better at medium densities, controlling for other factors, while use of local services is, as expected, greater in denser, more central locations. These findings indicate that compact cities are not ‘win-win’ on all dimensions of sustainability but, rather, that reductions in transport emissions will have to be weighed against social criteria. In addition, urban form has different aspects, which have differing social effects, and this knowledge could inform the future design of ‘smarter’ urban environments.

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