ABSTRACT
Urban sustainable development has been one of the political hot potatoes since the Rio summit. Two thirds of all recommendations in the unwieldy Agenda 21 document require local authorities as agents of implementation (Grubb et al, 1995). The battle over the ownership of the term "urban sustainability" has hence been fierce, both in theory (WCED, 1987; The Ecologist, 1993) and on the ground (see below). This paper explores the local configurations of sustainable development in Edinburgh and Wuppertal, Germany. It shows how two different cities, for different reasons, nonetheless define their quest for urban sustainability similarly. Sadly, it also shows the pitfalls of their shared commitment to "sustainable growth".
