ABSTRACT
The principles underlying sustainability are well understood and rehearsed extensively in Chapters 1 and 3. Such principles are increasingly visible in formal governmental papers on neighbourhood or community level democracy, and are percolating through the systems of government into practical initiatives. Opportunities for Change (DETR, 1998f) and Sustainable Regeneration: Good Practice Guide (Rogers and Stewart, 1998) are but two documents which exemplify both the direction of governmental thinking and the principles which underlie sustainability. These principles include recognition of the importance of equity at local, national, and international levels (in relation both to current inequalities and to the needs and aspirations of future generations), the threat to carrying capacity of resource depletion, the centrality of consultation, empowerment and partnership as the means of mobilizing, informing and encouraging change in attitudes and behaviour, and respect for the diversity and the strength which can be built from the coexistence of difference and variety.
