Sustainable Communities: New Spaces for Planning, Participation and Engagement

This book brings together key debates and empirical cases from an international perspective exploring the ways in which more sustainable communities might develop. There is a growing recognition that more effective sustainable development cannot be achieved without the engagement of the local community. But, this is far from an unproblematic process, and it requires a critical examination of the nature of the potential links between what we now consider as community and sustainable development. The book critically reviews the literatures on sustainable communities before addressing through empirical case studies of Firm, State and Resource perspectives on attempts to create them. The volume is a synthesis of research work and debate conducted over recent years by members of the Economic and social Research Councils research centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society (BRASS), under its sustainable communities programme. This volume critically explores and analyzes the policies, practices and strategies related to community involvement and how this shapes local environmental contexts. It debates and shares experiences generated through the various empirical studies. It considers the effectiveness of "stakeholder's dialogue" and relationships to reach consensus in ensuring the effective implementation of sustainable development practices. It identifies innovative organization infrastructure and modes of (community) interactions which are conducive to community empowerment and regeneration. It begins to provide a new evidence base to enhance multi-institutional learning possibilities in involving "local" communities in deriving improved sustainable development possibilities.