ABSTRACT
The previous chapter examined the social and environmental reasons for reopening the neighbourhood option. But there remains a verifiable suspicion that not much is happening in practice – that economic, political and behavioural constraints are inhibiting the realization of sustainable communities despite widespread support for the principle. There are also reasonable doubts as to whether what is happening matches up to the high aspirations of the econeighbourhood movement or the stringent criteria for sustainability as articulated in Chapter 1. We might expect something of a gulf between projects which emerge from idealistic personal commitment and those which are delivered by the market system.
