On the Social Sustainability of Structural Change. An inquiry on Inequalities and Mobility

This article contributes to the debate on the sustainability of structural change. It opens a reflection on the social sustainability of development and transition processes highlighting the central role of inequalities as an obstacle to enduring socio-economic transformations. This study underscores how structural change can be sustainable, resilient, and long-lasting when incorporates human dimensions, guarantees rights and strengthens capabilities and capaci- ties. To explore the relationship between inequality and the sustainability of structural transformations, we examine mobility as a capability to access societal opportunities and human development goals. This article develops a theory-and-measurement framework focusing on how unequal mobility mediates access to newly created opportunities. We formalize a mobility wedge that maps nominal opportunities into effective opportunities when jobs, training, and services relocate across space. Intersectional profiles (gender, class, migration background, disability, care burdens, and place) shape mobility costs in non-additive ways, so that barriers may compound at their intersections. We embed the wedge into a mobility-constrained search- and-matching model, yielding a disciplined logit specification that interacts with disadvantage, affordability, time, and safety. We outline implementation with microdata and derive policy priorities for inclusive process of transformation. Policy implications follow directly: inclusive structural change requires combining industrial and place-based strategies with targeted mobility, safety, and care interventions.