ABSTRACT
Nowhere else is the need for sustainable development more urgent than in cities, particularly in developing nations; equally, nowhere else is sustainability more at risk of being lost than in the highly populous, increasingly anonymous and mass cities of the rapidly urbanising South. For sustainable cities to become a reality in the developing world, there is need to have a conceptual and empirical notion of sustainable development that is relevant, attentive and responsive to the local religious, cultural, gendered and ecological realities and distinctiveness of place. Sense of place and placemaking must form vital elements of the framework that designs and implements urban sustainability policy, otherwise the concept, however well intentioned, will remain foreign, with the real risk that it actually excludes the local population that it is meant to benefit.
