Sustainable Communities in Europe

William M Lafferty is professor of political science at the University if Oslo, Norway, director of the Programme for Research and Documentation for a Sustainable Society (ProSus) within the Research Council of Norway and co-editor of From the Earth Summit to Local Agenda 21 (Earthscan, 1998).

'Invaluable as a source of collected case studies.' Cameron Sustainable Development Solutions'A useful and interesting book for all those that are involved in Local Agenda 21 processes.' European Circular'This book is a good read. It covers the ground admirably. The authors are all experienced and writing to a plan of analysis.' Environmental Science & Policy

• Foreword by Margot Wallstrom * Preface * Introduction * Sweden: Problems and Prospects at the Leading Edge of LA21 Implementation * Finland: In Search of New Implementation Patterns * Denmark: The Participatory and Consensus-seeking Approach of the Danish LA21 * Norway: LA21 as a Means of Interpreting and Achieving Sustainable Production and Consumption * The United Kingdom: Mainstreaming, Mutating or Expiring? * Ireland: Starting Late: Building Institutional Capacity on the Reform of Sub-national Governance? * The Netherlands: Probing the Essence of LA21 as a Value-added Approach to Sustainable Development and Local Democracy * France: LA21: A New Tool for Sustainable Policies? * Austria: From Eco-social Market Economy to LA21 * Italy: Converging Pathways between Central and Local Levels of Government? * Spain: La21: A Question of Institutional Leadership? * Conclusions and Perspectives * Index