ABSTRACT
After the initial euphoria of the Rio Summit and the widespread enthusiasm on the part of city authorities, spatial planners and environmental NGOs for Local Agenda 21s, formal proposals for the environmentalization of cities burgeoned. Many an urban expert saw in the environment a shift in ‘tasks and mindset’ comparable to the socialist-inspired impulse of post-war planning or the community-based radicalism of the 1970s (Marshall, 1994), a replacement formula for the welfare state (Palacio, 1994), the emergence of new rights and moral obligations for socio-spatial organization (Lipietz, 1996) and new possibilities to dignify city living, promote local democracy and widen the political horizons of the urban poor (Viviescas, 1993). Without paying too much attention to what sustainability might actually mean and the conditions within which it began to be pursued, environmental proposals for urban change were explored rapidly at both the conceptual and technical levels. However, it was above all a practical challenge. The policy-led character of sustainability discourse required action, and urgent action at that.
