Place and the implications of ‘the local’ for sustainability: an investigation of the Ugu District Municipality in South Africa

Abstract

Sustainable development is accepted worldwide as a programme for the improvement of human–environment relations. It has been argued that the local level is the optimum level at which to implement sustainability. However, variability of local characteristics problematises this process as engagements with the principles and practices of sustainable development in unique places are likely to result in varying interpretations of the internationally accepted discourses of sustainable development. In order to assess local level interpretations of sustainability [Sharp, L., 1999. Local policy for the global environment: in search of a new perspective. Environmental Politics 8 (4), 137–159] calls for a more contextual analysis of the relationship between sustainability and the local level. This paper evaluates the interpretations of sustainability that were evident in a capacity building workshop in the Ugu District Municipality on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa through consideration of the context in which they emerged. The notion of place as a construction of social and spatial interrelations, the social relations of power within places and the environmental discourses through which debates over sustainability often occur have been used in this study to consider how unequal power relations and the process of political and social transition taking place within the Ugu District Municipality drive the social construction of sustainability agendas. Consequently, the case study draws attention to the need to consider the ways in which local contexts set the terms for interpretations of sustainability as these conceptualizations can direct actions for sustainability and may interrelate to assist or hinder the implementation of local level sustainability plans.