The signing of Agenda 21 by the UK government committed local authorities in England to drawing up local action plans for sustainable development in partnership with their citizens. This Local Agenda 21 (LA21) initiative appeared to provide the opportunity for radical changes in the trajectory of development and in the nature of local governance. This research set out to explain why this did not take place and what happened instead. It investigated how the nature of public involvement in LA21 was shaped by the local authority policy making processes through which it was developed, based on the premise that these involved the working out of the ambiguous and contested concepts of public involvement and sustainable development in a complex policy and institutional environment. Two contrasting LA21 processes were studied in detail, primarily through interviews with key policy actors, supplemented by observation and documentary evidence. The research showed that public involvement in LA21 was the outcome of contestation between actors with differing interpretations of the key concepts, who also had a range of other policy and institutional goals which affected their attitudes towards the initiative. Outcomes were determined by which interpretations were present and the ability of actors to control policy making processes to promote their goals. This explains both the variation within the LA21 initiative as a whole and the absence of 'radical' impacts: such goals were simply not present or they were suppressed by more powerful actors. The thesis develops more practically adequate characterisations of both sustainable development and public involvement. It also challenges Agenda 21's concept of a consensual participative planning process for sustainable development. It concludes by suggesting that policy making for sustainable development is inherently conflictive, and that public involvement in it is both a tool for policy makers and a channel for democratic input into policy making.

As the world population moves toward 10 billion people over the next 50 years environmental decline seems inevitable unless changes are implemented. Issues of ecology, sustainability and the city are now being recognised as critical. The systemic and holistic nature of the problem means that sustainable policies must address a wide range of social issues, political attitudes, economic practices and technological methods. Volume One offers a wide-ranging and comprehensive review of Environmental Problems and Sustainability and seeks to map out both the historical and contemporary basis for a widespread transition towards a more sustainable society. The world's cities now offer the critical context within which sustainable strategies can be developed and tested. Much current academic and policy literature describes a range of sustainable development models representing radically different views of how the processes leading towards the planning and implementation of cities needs to b e realised. Volume Two describes Paolo Soleri's Arcology Model and the Arcosanti Laboratory as a relevant methodology and case study. The arcology model attempts to address issues of sustainability by advocating a balanced relationship between urban morphology and performance within cities designed to conform to the complexity - miniaturization - duration (CMD) paradigm. The methodology recognises the need for the radical reorganisation of urban sprawl into dense, integrated compact urban structures in which material recycling, waste reduction and the use of renewable energy sources are part of a sustainable strategy aimed at reducing the flow of resources and products through the urban system. As governments, eager to deliver major environmental improvements, press on with, as yet, untried and untested 'centrist' urban policies, there is a need to research relevant models of compaction. Over the last ten years, as the criteria of urban sustainability have become more widely accepted and understood the relevance of the Soleri's model has become clearer. Arcosanti in Arizona, begun in 1970, offers a laboratory for testing the validity of the theory. Volume Two concludes by critically reviewing arcology and Arcosanti in the context of the discourse on sustainability offered in Volume One. Since the energy crisis of the mid-1970s efforts at Arcosanti have been directed toward the definition and testing of various architectural effects that, when combined, could offer a response to many of today's environmental problems. But today progress is painstakingly slow. Lacking the level of funding and resources that would enable it to be convincing, it now represents not so much a specific prototypical solution but an activist engaged strategy that advocates the possibility of building our dreams and visions. In a world plagued by so many problems, and so few alternatives, it continues to offer a beacon of hope for a sustainable future.

This thesis studies the issues on sustainability with nonrenewable resources and on practical problem with environment: regulation to control pollution. The first essay proves the converse of Hartwick's rule with general production function. Hartwick's rule shows that if one reinvests all the rents from nonrenewable resource, then constant sustainable consumption can be maintained. This ensures intergenerational equity. The converse of Hartwick's rule is proved by directly solving ordinary differential equations. It means the constant consumption must imply the total reinvesting of the rents from the exhaustible resource, and so the Hartwick's rule prescribes the unique sustainable policy. / In the second essay, Rawls' "just saving principle" is fonnulated with a model for constant utility in an intergenerational allocation framework. A term comparing consumption of adjacent generations is added to the utility function. The model is analyzed in the context of optimal control theory. In a two-sector economy, consumption growth is incorporated with equity. This property removes the disadvantage that a society starting out poor will be in such poverty forever, which is inherent in the model of constant consumption with nonrenewable resources. Different forms of generalized Hartwick's Rule are obtained. Optimal consumption path is characterized to achieve the highest utility. / The third essay investigates the optimal emission tax schemes for oligopolistic firms with differentiated goods. In the model, pollution stock creates disutility on social welfare. Firms play dynamic games against themselves, trying to maximize the long-run profit given the tax rules and their opponents' behavior. Open-loop and Markov Nash Equilibria are studied. The model is analyzed with optimal control theory and differential game theory. Time-independent tax rules are shown to exist that guide polluting oligopolists to produce along socially optimum path. For linear market demand and quadratic damage function, the tax rules are shown to be linear in the pollution stock. Numerical examples show that even the polluting firm can receive subsidy at the periods when initial pollution stock is low. The optimal tax in general is dependent on the current pollutant stock. The results shed a light on policy making of the related market structure.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-142). / Microfiche. / vii, 142 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

A growing knowledge of the human impact on the environment has led to widespread dissatisfaction with the current relationship between industrial societies and the nature that sustains them. From within this milieu, sustainable development has emerged as a term that describes an appropriate relationship in the context of the present time and culture. Although it has been widely adopted by many individuals and organisations, there is little agreement as to what it means and entails. Business has been attributed a significant role in achieving sustainable development. Many have joined the sustainable development debate and received both accolades and critique for their endeavours to interpret and implement the concept within the business sector. Consideration of the prominent and influential role of business in industrial societies, and the lack of definition, elicits the question: what do those people who have taken up the challenge of applying the principles of sustainable development to the business sector think the term means? In response, I have explored participants� subjective knowledge of the meaning of sustainable development within the broad context of humanity�s relationship with nature. In this context, sustainable development is just one of many views of the �proper� relationship incumbent within environmentalism, and which variously critique industrial society�s relationship with nature. A cognitive approach was adopted that suggests how a society views and uses nature arises from its culture; and that an individual�s vision of nature is influenced by their personal environmental worldview, encompassing fundamental beliefs regarding the underlying nature of reality and guidelines for living. The views of forty-eight individuals active in New Zealand�s �sustainable business arena� were investigated. Participants were drawn from businesses purported to be adopting the principles of sustainable development and organisations assisting in this endeavour. Their knowledge was explored by means of cognitive mapping, semi structured questioning, and Q Methodology. Not surprisingly, participants held a variety of normative and subjective understandings of sustainable development that appear to have arisen from �life in general� rather than any external source. Although humanity, the environment, and change were considered central to sustainable development, beyond this were contested notions and priorities as each participant described their vision for the future, each challenging various aspects of our industrial society, to varying degrees. Five ideal-type views were characterised and termed the Societalist, Individualist, Ecologist, Realist, and Futurist views. The five ideal-type views are presented as a typology, constructed from relevant and prioritised worldview beliefs, that highlights the major contradictions. Considered in this way, consensus on the meaning of sustainable development seems unlikely. And perhaps sustainable development is not one thing but instead a reflexive culture of change such that we question how we live. Hitherto, extant sustainable development literature has highlighted the power of business over society. In contrast, in this research, participants reported their attempts to implement sustainable development within business were constrained by society�s requirements and institutions. Further, understanding of sustainable development was observed to be learnt from our culture, highlighting at a more fundamental level, the sway of society on sustainable business.

Bibliography: leaves 318-346. / v, 346 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / This thesis explores the subject of how effective a national government environment protection institution can be in making industry sustainable. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Politics, 1999

No description available.

While much of inland rural and regional Australia in the early 21st Century is struggling to survive through a tough restructuring period and significant population decline with its associated impacts on local services, many coastal locations are experiencing unprecedented development including non-urban population growth and coastal subdivision. There is an urgent need for a more holistic approach to future development in coastal communities around Australia that recognises the contribution of past land uses and the implementation of sustainable policies and practices that link the environment, people and the economy. Many of these coastal locations share a similar post contact history of a constant effort to create and maintain sustainable communities. Most have experienced several different dominant land uses since European occupation as various political and ideological forces have promoted new ideas and technologies to exploit the available natural resources. Remnants of these past activities, including pre European land use, still remain and have now become an important component of the cultural heritage and tourist product in these coastal regions. The Leeuwin-Naturaliste Region occupies the extreme south western corner of Western Australia approximately 250km south of the city of Perth and is one location that shares this experience. The region is presently one of the fastest growing areas in Western Australia outside of the metropolitan area. Between 1991 and 2001 the population of the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Region increased by 65% to 31, 911 (ABS 2001). Although the region has been experiencing unprecedented growth since the late 1980s, it had previously comprised mostly small rural communities struggling to maintain their populations and economic viability. The Leeuwin-Naturaliste Region has been ‘discovered’ no less than seven times since European occupation in 1830. It has been ‘invaded’ by a series of different people from both the public and private sectors who have initiated diverse land uses for different objectives. Each new land use activity was initiated from outside the region as people reappraised the environment with little consideration of the knowledge of the local environment obtained through past land use activities. These new land uses were usually politically or demand driven and related to the broader development of the state rather than the long term viability of the local region. Whilst the phenomenal development associated with tourism constitutes the most recent land use activity, tourism was preceded by Early European agricultural Settlement from the 1830s; the timber Industry from the 1850s; the Group Settlements and establishment of a dairy industry from the 1920s; the alternative lifestylers from the 1960s and the viticultural industry from the 1970s. This thesis will explore both the historical and contemporary processes which have played a significant part in shaping the region’s cultural landscapes and underpin the current development issues it is experiencing. It is argued that much of the land use history of this region has been framed by a consistent frontier ethos and that it is only relatively recently the concept of sustainable development has begun to be implemented even though ironically its principles were effectively guiding land use practices for centuries before European settlement. This thesis concludes that for the most recent land use activity of tourism to achieve the long term sustainability that has eluded so many past land uses, development must facilitate multiple land use management and encourage the continued incorporation of past land use activities to maintain the region’s cultural, social and economic diversity rather than tourism overpowering them to become the dominant activity. At the same time, of course, these multiple land uses must themselves be managed by contemporary and evolving principles of sustainable development. All stakeholders both within and outside the region need to adopt a more holistic sustainable approach to managing the region’s resources learning from both past land use attempts and the principles of Indigenous cosmology including the importance of the interconnectedness of people, environment and economy. If this is achieved then it is more likely that both current and future generations will have a high quality of life with long term economic security that also ensures the long term maintenance of their socio-cultural and environmental resources.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Also available online.

Thesis (M.A.)--East Tennessee State University, 2007. / Adviser: Henry J. Antkiewicz. Includes bibliographical references.