Abstract
AbstractIncreasingly in the UK regulators and industries are taking on duties towards sustainable development. Governance procedures, which include regulation, are evolving to accommodate this in a manner that is reflexive of existing institutional structures. Governance provides an organizing framework for ordered rule and collective action, not reliant on coercive sanction. It is characterized by a web of actors from across government, industry and civil society with both intentions and outcomes being negotiated and reinterpreted. With respect to sustainable development this can be seen at work within the regulation of the water sector. This paper, based on a series of interviews situated from within the water industry, investigates whether the formal regulation of the industry helps or hinders the adoption and implementation of sustainable practices. The regulatory structure encourages an approach that mediates relationships through the redefinition of sustainability in econocentric terms, thus losing the richness of the concept. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
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