ABSTRACT

This book argues that there is no way to make progress in building a sustainable future without extensive participation of non-state actors.

The volume explores the contribution of non-state actors to a sustainable transition, starting with citizens and communities of different kinds and ending with cities and city-networks. The authors analyse social, cultural, political and economic drivers and barriers for this transition, from individual behaviour to structural restraints, and investigate interplay between the two. Through a series of wide-ranging case studies from the UK, Australia, Germany, Italy and Denmark, and a number of comparative case studies, the volume provides an empirically and theoretically robust argument that highlights the need to develop, widen and scale up collective action and community-based engagement if the transition to sustainability is to be successful.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, sustainability and environmental policy.

chapter 1|13 pages

Introduction

part I|56 pages

Individual and collective sustainable norms and behaviour

chapter 2|17 pages

Sustainable societies

Committed people in supportive conditions

chapter 3|18 pages

‘It has to be reasonable’

Pragmatic ways of living sustainably in Danish eco-communities

chapter 4|19 pages

Stronger together

How Danish environmental communities influence behavioural and societal changes

part II|100 pages

Grassroots, green communities and social impact

chapter 5|22 pages

Are vegetables political?

The traces of the Copenhagen Food Coop

chapter 6|19 pages

Rethinking environmentalism in a ‘ruined’ world

Lessons from the permaculture movement

chapter 7|22 pages

Urban green communities

Towards a pragmatic sociology of civic commonality in sustainable city-making

chapter 9|18 pages

There was no ‘there’ there any more

An Australian story about knowledge, power, and resistance

chapter 10|21 pages

Labour organising against climate change

The case of fracking in the UK

part III|76 pages

Creating sustainable cities and infrastructures

chapter 12|19 pages

Imagining the net zero emissions city

Urban climate governance in the City of Melbourne, Australia

chapter 13|17 pages

Governing the transnational

Exploring the governance tools of 100 Resilient Cities