Abstract
<p>The objective of this article is to show how Dutch municipalities use scientific literature about sustainable development in their spatial planning policies and processes. The approach to this research is twofold. First, we conducted a literature review that summarized the most important discourses in the international and Dutch literature. Secondly, we interviewed Dutch municipalities and asked them how they interpret and define sustainable (spatial) development, how they keep up with the quick developments surrounding sustainability and how they approach sustainable development in their own planning practices. Results show that many municipalities claimed to interpret sustainable development in a broad manner and claim to use a sufficient amount of scientific literature, but their planning practices suggest otherwise. We conclude that the trichotomy ‘international scientific literature – national professional literature - planning practice’ is not self-evident within Dutch sustainable (spatial) development.</p>
Highlights
After nearly thirty years, it has become clear that the concept of sustainability is not as straightforward to work with as was expected in 1987 with the publication of ‘Our Common Future’ by the Brundtland Commission
The objective is translated in the following research question: ‘’Which literature do municipalities use to interpret and define sustainability and sustainable spatial development, how do they cope with the fast development of these concepts and how are choices made in regard to these concepts?’’
We questioned which literature municipalities use to interpret and define sustainability and sustainable spatial development, how they cope with the fast development of these concepts and how knowingly municipalities made choices in regard to these concepts
Summary
It has become clear that the concept of sustainability is not as straightforward to work with as was expected in 1987 with the publication of ‘Our Common Future’ by the Brundtland Commission. With good reason: sustainable development was, and is, thought to be able to tackle some of the most fundamental challenges mankind is facing (Hopwood, Mellor & O’Brien, 2005). This impact is the reason that - despite being introduced almost thirty years ago - the subject is still current in today’s society, which is clearly shown in the prominent position of sustainability in nowadays planning policies. The only thing that is rather clear, is that consensus is far from being achieved (Kambites, 2012, De Jong, Joss, Schraven, Zhan & Weijnen, 2015)
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