Community Vitality: The Role of Community-Level Resilience Adaptation and Innovation in Sustainable Development

Ann Dale, Chris Ling and Lenore Newman
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Ann Dale: School of Environment and Sustainability, Royal Roads University, 2005 Sooke Road, Victoria, BC, V9B 5Y2, Canada
Chris Ling: School of Environment and Sustainability, Royal Roads University, 2005 Sooke Road, Victoria, BC, V9B 5Y2, Canada
Lenore Newman: School of Environment and Sustainability, Royal Roads University, 2005 Sooke Road, Victoria, BC, V9B 5Y2, Canada

Sustainability, 2010, vol. 2, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: Community level action towards sustainable development has emerged as a key scale of intervention in the effort to address our many serious environmental issues. This is hindered by the large-scale destruction of both urban neighbourhoods and rural villages in the second half of the twentieth century. Communities, whether they are small or large, hubs of experimentation or loci of traditional techniques and methods, can be said to have a level of community vitality that acts as a site of resilience, adaptation and innovation in the face of environmental challenges. This paper outlines how community vitality acts as a cornerstone of sustainable development and suggests some courses for future research. A meta-case analysis of thirty-five Canadian communities reveals the characteristics of community vitality emerging from sustainable development experiments and its relationship to resilience, applied specifically to community development.

Keywords: sustainable development; community vitality; resilience; innovation; adaptation; case study research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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