Mark Roseland

Sustainable community development: integrating environmental, economic, and social objectives

The purpose of this article is to stimulate and inform discussion about the community role in sustainable development and to broaden our understanding of the opportunities for sustainable community development activity. It begins with an overview of sustainable development, questioning its focus on poverty as a major source of environmental degradation, and suggesting instead that both poverty and environmental degradation result largely from wealth. It next examines the concepts of natural capital and social capital, whether (and if so, how) they are linked, and explores their implications for sustainable development at the community level. Chapter 3 examines planning theory and sustainable development, finds that while planning theory is, or should be, relevant to sustainable development, planners concerned with key aspects of sustainable development will have to look to “greener” pastures for relevant theoretical guidance. Chapter 4 considers the implications for achieving sustainable development in communities, particularly regarding the future of work and community economic development. Chapter 5 details a framework for sustainable community development. Chapter 6 concerns questions of governance for sustainable community development and it focuses on public participation, decision-making, the role of local government, and planning for action. Chapter 7 examines relevant policy instruments and planning tools. Finally, Chapter 8 explores the challenge ahead for sustainable community development. ! 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved.

Dimensions of the eco-city

Abstract The paper explores the evolution of the concept of the eco-city, and shows how it can be linked to issues ranging from urban planning and economic development through to matters of social justice. The challenge is to encourage local democracy within a context of sustainability.

Bridging sustainability and the social economy: Achieving community transformation through local food initiatives

Sustainability and the social economy are two approaches that provide critiques of mainstream economic growth based on the failure to integrate environmental and social concerns. This article explores the potential for community transformation by bridging these two approaches — bringing more environmental considerations into the social economy and using the social economy to advance equity concerns within sustainability. We examine this potential through local food initiatives in two Canadian cities that are striving to create a synthesis of social and environmental objectives to achieve structural change in the way that food is produced, accessed and consumed. Both projects are founded on commitments to sustainable community development and social justice. While the initiatives illustrate the potential for community transformation by integrating sustainability and the social economy, they also illustrate the challenges associated with an incremental approach to change in the context of competition with mainstream economic activities that are heavily subsidized and do not account for negative social, economic and environmental externalities.

Second growth: community economic development in rural British Columbia.

Community Economic Development (CED) is a development approach that assumes a communitys problems are best understood and solved endogenously. For decades it garnered no interest from policymakers as a mainstream development approach. However, that changed during the 1980s. Amidst the growing perception that conventional regional development policies and programs were ineffective, both federal and provincial levels of government in Canada began looking for alternative development approaches ones that were more inclusive and capable of integrating both economic and social objectives.

Leaders of the Pack: An analysis of the Canadian 'Sustainable Communities' 2000 municipal competition

The first annual Sustainable Community competition, co-sponsored by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and CH2M Hill in 2000, received 52 submissions from municipalities across Canada. These submissions were systematically analysed to identify common characteristics shared by competition entrants, including what differentiates competition participants from other Canadian municipalities, what kinds of sustainability projecs municipalities have been most likely to undertake and what motivating and success factors are most commonly cited. Urban municipalities were more likely than rural municipalities to undertake sustainability projects. Stakeholder involvement was found to be the most important factor in determining the success of a project. Many projects in the competition had not identified clear holistic visions and benchmarks, and these were noted as areas where improvement could be made. The impact of higher levels of government in setting benchmarks and providing support was also noteworthy.

‘Back of the Envelope’: Pragmatic Planning for Sustainable Rural Community Development

Abstract Canadian communities are struggling with a significant infrastructure deficit. Hidden within this challenge is an opportunity to re-envision and re-construct communities using the principles and practices of sustainable community development. Research repeatedly illustrates, however, that communities struggle to implement sustainable alternatives, even when their planning documents are infused with the principles of sustainable development. The purpose of this article is to address this ‘implementation gap’ from a rural perspective. Rural communities face particular capacity barriers to conducting innovative and integrated planning. Using data drawn from a case study of Craik, Saskatchewan, the article presents findings that illustrate a variety of pragmatic techniques rural communities can adopt to bridge the implementation gap and successfully complete sustainable development projects.

Pushing the envelope: market mechanisms for sustainable community development

This paper introduces market mechanisms for sustainable community development, an interdependent planning and implementation framework encompassing strategic directions, strategies, actors and instruments for municipal policy making. It examines how the economy influences the unsustainable development of local jurisdictions and how a coherent typology of strategies, actors and policy levers can move communities toward complementary environmental, social and economic outcomes. The paper illustrates a dichotomy between municipal decision making and embraces economic, social and environmental criteria for development of the built environment. It defines sustainable community development and analyzes research findings from senior decision makers in government, academic institutions, industry and non-profits. After critiquing ‘the market mechanism’ and identifying preferred approaches, the authors propose a typology that systematically aligns market signals with implementing sustainable community development policies.

Economic instruments for sustainable community development

Abstract In recent years there has been increasing interest in the use of so‐called ‘economic instruments’ in environmental policy. Economic instruments influence the behaviour of economic agents by providing financial incentives for environmentally improved behaviour, or disincentives for damaging behaviour. This paper explores the use of economic instruments in the field of sustainable community planning and development. It does so in the wider context of how environmental economic policy is made. The focus of this paper is to examine the role of policy instruments in community planning, and to review the different types of instruments that are available to policy‐makers. Numerous examples of the various instruments at the community level are described. It is widely believed that policy making should occur at the lowest or most local level possible while maintaining effectiveness. A system of government that does not give adequate legal power to local governments, and does not allow local governments co...

We Know Enough: Achieving Action Through the Convergence of Sustainable Community Development and the Social Economy

Ten years ago in Johannesburg, there were over 6,000 communities across the world that had taken tangible steps towards implementing sustainability. However, while many have conducted visioning exercises and hired consultants to draw-up sustainability plans, far too often those plans remain on the shelf. In short, we face an implementation gap. Barriers to implementation are less about our technical capacity – we know enough about viable alternatives and solutions – and more about the mobilization of citizens and their governments to enact structural change. In addition, communities are struggling to deliver on the holistic promise of sustainability. Sustainability suffers from policy inflation of increased expectations to deliver development that is economically, socially, and environmentally sound, yet has failed to acknowledge the increasing capacity gap for implementation. We have made great progress on both the economic and environmental dimensions, well encapsulated by the burgeoning green economy. However, Agyeman et al. (2003) and others remind us that the social aspects of sustainability are lagging. The purpose of this chapter is to address these two implementation gaps: mobilization and socializing sustainability. Our approach to these challenges is framed within the context of two concepts: sustainable community development and the social economy. It is our hope to contribute to the discourse surrounding sustainable development and to offer insights, drawn from our research, into how to mobilize sustainable forms of development that offer a truly balanced and holistic interpretation of the sustainability ideal.

Supporting Global Sustainability by Rethinking the City

FEW, if any, cities have had the luxury of an extended respite from change. Contending with recurring physical and social challenges is a core element of the urban experience and a defining characteristic of the future of cities. Urban boosters often depict their future as filled with boundless opportunities. But for most cities, the future also has the potential to deal a wild card that can undermine the raison d’être of a particular agglomeration. How such challenges are addressed makes the difference between either accomplishing urban regeneration that enables the better future promised by the boosters or watching the forces of change generate urban decline that can lead to decay or collapse and abandonment. This special issue of The Journal of Urban Technology explores how the world’s more affluent cities could respond to major disruptions in energy supply and global climate change by pursuing changes that would lead to regeneration. Such a struggle to adapt cities to a changing world provides a window on the dynamics of urban paradigm change. The contributors to this volume investigated this issue in a workshop organized by the Urban Studies Program at Simon Fraser University, immediately following the Third World Urban Forum, held in June 2006 in Vancouver Canada. The workshop focused on the ways in which affluent cities could meet the challenges posed by energy disruption and climate change. These For more about the World Urban Forum and other global gatherings as triggers for paradigm change, see the last article in this issue, Holden et al, “WUF3: The Dog That Didn’t Bark.”