ABSTRACT
The 1992 United Nations Rio Earth Summit and the publication of its Agenda 21 heralded a united international response to global environmental issues, bringing the concept of Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) to the fore of public consciousness and government policymaking. Agenda 21, as the action plan for ESD, was reaffirmed at the 2012 Rio+20 Conference by the 192 governments in attendance. Much criticism has been made of the lack of action arising from Agenda 21 over the past 20 years and the need for a far more urgent response to the key environmental issues – including that of fossil fuel depletion and climate change (UN, 2012). Agenda 21 shares with other international, regional and national statements a commitment to the critical value of communities in protecting local environments – and additionally points to the strength and potential of the collective efforts of local communities worldwide to fulfil the promise of producing an ecologically sustainable society. This shares much with the global community and alternative media movement, and its reliance on local community participation to deliver communicative democracy. While environmental policy statements appeal to a sense of local ownership of environments, in a similar vein, community and alternative media appeal to local ownership of media. Both are reliant in a very fundamental sense on local participation and action – broadly dissolving the boundaries between the ‘experts’ and citizens.
