Sustainable development faces an enormous number of challenges that must be overcome before a real change is ever experienced. The scale of the issues involved with the current way of life on a global scale creates a barrier that is so large that no solution seems to be able to have any effect. In order for sustainable development projects to reach a global scale, they must first be successful on much smaller scales. In my opinion the community scale is by far the most important platform for sustainable solutions. A community is more than just people living in close proximity to one another. Communities should be rich with interaction and the common strife of bettering and enriching lives and the community itself.
The way a community interacts and functions can be directly related to the idea of social capital. Social capital is defined by the University of Washington as:
“...the connections in a social network, and the trust, reciprocity, and resource-sharing qualities of those connections. It can be activated by individuals to gain social support or social leverage, or by collectivities to facilitate organization and collective action.”
Check this out for some background info!!
This idea is vitally important in understanding the potential for sustainable development at the community level. It is also a key indicator of the current problems that many communities face today. When a community contains many of these strong connections, it is much more likely that grassroots type movements can be achieved. Strong sense of community will drive the demand to improve communities.
While social capital is important for sustainable development on the community scale, alone it could easily fail. In my opinion, proper education of sustainability issues is also vital for communities to become sustainable. The same social capital that could easily engage the community could easily facilitate the suppression of sustainable initiatives. An empowered community that does not understand the need for sustainable development (like improved transit or renewable energy) could easily prevent such changes from being developed.
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So what components make a sustainable community? The major components of a society are the natural environment, economy and social health. All of these factors must work together effectively in order for sustainability to be achieved. What this means that if we balance these three things together, sustainability is achieved. No one of these factors can outweigh another. This kind of thinking starts with individuals making a commitment and sticking to these ideals, influencing those around them. If successful, communities can achieve great strides in movement towards sustainability. For a very cool example of just how this could work check out the link below for the One Tree Orchard community!!
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“...Sustainability must be community-led and consensus-based because the central issue is will, not expertise; only a community-based process can overcome the political, bureaucratic and psychological barriers to change...” Round Table on the Environment
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