The Green Village project: a rural community's journey towards sustainability

In the South West of the UK, a growing number of rural and urban communities are exploring various pathways to a more sustainable living. The village of Belstone is among these pioneers of change through its Green Village project. It is a relatively affluent community and it has been a major challenge to engage people that are reticent to change their lifestyle and suspicious of the motives of the initiators. Based on a process of action research, this paper explores the attitudes and perceptions towards sustainability and how they influenced the people's engagement. We demonstrate that the partnership was effective in enabling the villagers engaged in the project to take control over the process. Behaviour changes were reported by the villagers actively engaged with the initiative. The Green Village did not “snowball” to the entire community; however, many of those who chose not to engage associated the word “Green” with traits that they did not identify with.     

The importance of the “not-so-cool” sectors: creative solutions to reconcile environmental and economic sustainability within a floodplain

Creative cities are generally considered as “cool” spaces which attract a particular “creative class” whose ability to innovate and transform – particularly in the media and cultural sectors – offers urban economies a competitive edge. This paper argues that, in the face of dangerous climate change, the creativity of the “not-so-cool” sectors needs to be acknowledged and valued. A case study of Salford in the north-west of England shows how political, technological and economic creativity has secured sustainable regeneration within a floodplain. It is argued that the concept of “creativity” in urban economic discourse needs to be widened to acknowledge the importance of the creativity of planners, civil engineers and builders in securing environmentally sustainable cities. Environmental sustainability, it suggests, not only underpins economic sustainability. Faced with dangerous climate change and society's need to respond, the skills and expertise can in themselves contribute to a city's competitiveness.     

The local nonprofit sector and the pursuit of sustainability in American cities: a preliminary exploration

This paper reports on the results of a study of the relationship between the nonprofit sector and the pursuit of sustainability in 13 moderate sized US cities with populations between 400,000 and 600,000. Dividing the cities into two groups – those that have been more serious and less serious about adopting and implementing sustainability policies, analysis of a survey of local public officials examines differences in the nonprofit landscape. Analysis shows that the cities that are more serious about sustainability have local public officials who interact more with nonprofit organisations, and are more likely to report the presence of at least one nonprofit group that supports city sustainability policies. Additionally, these reported groups are more likely to be “local”, or homegrown, and to be explicitly dedicated to the environment or sustainability. While far from definitive, the results provide evidence that the nonprofit sector is different in cities with sustainability policies, and suggest that the role of these nonprofit groups in the governance decisions of city leaders warrants more in-depth study.     

Climate change in mountain regions: how local communities adapt to extreme events

This paper examines how local communities adapt to climate change and how governance structures can foster or undermine adaptive capacity. Climate change policies, in general, and disaster risk management in mountain regions, in particular, are characterised by their multi-level and multi-sectoral nature during formulation and implementation. The involvement of numerous state and non-state actors at local to national levels produces a variety of networks of interaction and communication. The paper argues that the structure of these relational patterns is critical for understanding adaptive capacity. It thus proposes an expanded concept of adaptive capacity that incorporates (horizontal and vertical) actor integration and communication flow between these actors. The paper further advocates the use of formal social network analysis to assess these relational patterns. Preliminary results from research on adaptation to climate change in a Swiss mountain region vulnerable to floods and other natural hazards illustrate the conceptual and empirical significance of the main arguments.     

Contemporary and traditional localism: a conceptualisation of rural local food

The increasingly popular local food movement in the US has experienced wide-scale buy-in on behalf of the general public as well as in academic arenas. However, there have been recent efforts to critique this movement, typically for being inequitable and unfairly geared towards those with above-average financial means. In this article, I examine local food efforts and present a new conceptualisation of food localism. While geographically localised food consumption activities are taking place, some have ideological labels attached to them, whereas others do not. What I have termed contemporary and traditional localisms exist in the same physical but different social space. The contemporary local is represented by current local food initiatives and corresponding aspirations to support local farmers and to promote sustainability through local purchasing behaviour. The traditional local, on the other hand, is similar in that it represents food growing activities that are in close geographical proximity to consumption, but lacks the motivation associated with the contemporary local's programmatic literature; instead, it is guided by a motivation to obtain fresh and affordable food. I substantiate the contemporary/traditional localism framework with qualitative fieldwork findings from Grafton County, New Hampshire, USA, and describe the practical as well as conceptual implications of this framework.     

Made in conflict. Local residents' construction of a local environmental problem

The aim of this paper is to understand how local residents participate in the construction of local environmental problems and to evaluate a particular analytical approach in environmental sociology to study this phenomenon. The paper is based on an interview study with a sample of local residents. The analysis demonstrates how the local residents attempt to construct a local environmental problem. In particular, the study focuses on how involved actors are positioned, how different sorts of knowledge claims are used, and how the neglect the residents perceive from the authorities affects the attempt to construct a local environmental problem. The study shows that the local residents play a central role in the construction of the situation and that the evaluated model could be very helpful as an analytical tool in the investigation of local residents' participation in the construction of environmental problems.     

Sustainability and social inclusion? Examining the frames of Canadian English-speaking environmental movement organisations

Some scholars and activists have suggested that discourses of environmental sustainability do not include sufficient attention to social issues or environmental justice. Since social inclusion is a prevalent masterframe among activists and in social policy circles in Canada and elsewhere, our research explored the extent that English-speaking Canadian environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) incorporate discursive aspects of social inclusion into their website communication. Social inclusion includes such issues as multiculturalism, gender inequality, low income and racialisation. We analysed mission statements, programmes and policy analysis presented by a sample of ENGOs drawn from the membership of the Canadian Environmental Network for evidence of a variety of indicators of attention to social inclusion. We conclude that environmental groups remain locked into an “environmentalist” frame that often ignores such issues. This has major implications for partnerships with other Canadian social movements.     

Community energy plans in Canadian cities: success and barriers in implementation

Climate change and sustainable development concerns have motivated some municipalities in Canada to develop community energy plans, which focus on energy needs at the local level for the development of efficient, economical and environmental energy systems. Five Canadian cities that were early adopters of community energy planning principles were studied to assess whether implementation has occurred and what barriers have been experienced. The cities achieved success in the implementation of energy management in municipal operations despite barriers in jurisdiction, perception of cost, communication and capacity, but energy management in the community had not been fully implemented and long-term changes were not prevalent. While reductions were made in the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced by municipal operations, the community's overall GHG emissions were not significantly reduced. Long-term impacts on a city's function and growth will be key if community energy planning is to significantly impact community-wide GHG emissions and energy use.     

Place and exile: resource conflicts and sustainability in Gaelic Ireland and Scotland

This paper reflects on two controversial resource projects – the Bellanaboy gas refinery (Ireland) and the Barvas Moor wind farm (Scotland) – and critical arguments made by key local actors. Although risk, health, environment and development dominated the official decision-making processes, these actors articulated views which cut across or existed beyond such orthodox ideas and framings. Focusing on these, I show that the Gaelic concepts of dùthchas and deoraíocht, summarised as place and exile, help to explain why some residents decided to protest. This paper illustrates the role that history, culture and language can play in conflicts, emphasises the need for greater sensitivity to these and suggests that place and exile can inform alternative visions of sustainability.     

Metabolisms of injustice: municipal solid-waste management and environmental equity in Barcelona's Metropolitan Region

Environmental justice studies that focus on the management of municipal solid waste (MSW) typically examine the unequal distribution of associated health and environmental risks in minority social groups and the political processes that generate these inequalities. With the aim to complement current views on the field, in this work, we explore whether there is an issue of environmental justice in municipal systems' grade of self-sufficiency in treating the MSW that they generate and in their effort to close their material cycles. The methodology used is based on the concept of urban metabolism and is applied to 12 coastal municipalities of Barcelona's Metropolitan Region in Spain. The metabolism of the MSW flows of each system is analysed to examine (i) the system's efficiency to close its MSW cycles, corresponding to an indicator of environmental sustainability, and (ii) the MSW export and import flows, as an indicator of social sustainability. The results demonstrate a positive correlation between socioeconomic status and the externalisation of MSW treatment-related hazards. The proposed indicator proves to be an excellent tool for the evaluation of both the environmental and social performance of a system considering MSW management.