Does sustainability count? Environmental policy, sustainable development and the governance of grassroots sustainability enterprise in Ireland

Anna Ray Davies
Additional contact information
Anna Ray Davies: Trinity College, Geography Department, Dublin, Ireland, Postal: Trinity College, Geography Department, Dublin, Ireland

Sustainable Development, 2009, vol. 17, issue 3, 174-182

Abstract: Environmentally focused social economy activities have been identified as archetypal examples of sustainable development: what might be called grassroots sustainability enterprises. The economic, social and environmental benefits that they can offer have been alluded to, but little empirical evaluation has been conducted examining the governing conditions under which they emerge or the impacts they engender. In response this paper investigates the experiences of one arena of grassroots sustainability enterprise in Ireland, community based recycling organizations (CBROs). The research found that the tripartite focus of CBROs on economic development, environmental enhancement and social capacity building can be problematic rather than bringing enhanced status. Building on an analysis of national planning documents it is proposed that such problems emerge as dominant governing conditions are pursuing ecological modernization and social partnership as distinct rather than integrated pathways of development. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/sd.374 Link to full text; subscription required (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:17:y:2009:i:3:p:174-182

DOI: 10.1002/sd.374

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainable Development is currently edited by Richard Welford

More articles in Sustainable Development from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().