Sustainability and attitudes to locality: the discourse of town and parish councillors |
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Authors: | Carol Jill Kambites |
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Institution: | 1. Countryside and Community Research Institute , Dunholme Villa, The Park, Cheltenham, GL50 2RH, UK ckambites@glos.ac.uk |
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Abstract: | The possible role of parish and town councils (local councils) in the local implementation of sustainable development has been overlooked both in research and in policy-making. This article is based on research into local councillors' attitudes to sustainability and to their own role within a single county. A “discourse of local council legitimation” is identified, in which local councillors see their communities as living organisms, whose interests they represent with the benefit of local knowledge and holistic thinking – characteristics which they see as absent at other levels of government. Local councillors essentially see their role as local and relatively short-term – a perspective that will have to be addressed if local councils are to make a significant contribution to sustainability. |
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Keywords: | local councils sustainability discourse locality |
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