ABSTRACT
Sustainability is a normative concept, being concerned with values towards which we hope to move. Those values and the mechanisms by which we move towards them are crucial for sustainable development. Because sustainability involves issues such as the needs of future generations, the exercise of agreeing on both values and process is bound to be beset by uncertainties. This has led many to conclude that, logically, top-down modes of decision-making might be flawed. They draw on limited experience and understanding. Their capacity for reflection on both the reason for and the most appropriate type of intervention to promote sustainable activity is limited by a lack of participation and runs the risk of neglecting insights and experience that would greatly support the achievement of the sustainable values. In contrast, bottom-up processes better suit the answering of what is largely an empirical question of how sustainability is best served. Such processes do not merely generate a wider range of information, but also advance the legitimacy of the interventions made. Moreover, as we will assert below, the process of involvement in decision-making has considerable value in its own right.
