From the inside looking out: knowledge, justice and modernity in the assessment of St. Julian's environmental capacity

The aim of this paper is to examine whether the concept of environmental capacity is useful for implementing local sustainability. This concept suggests that there may be thresholds to the total amount of development that an area can sustain without losing its critical environmental features. By mea...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Local environment 2004-02, Vol.9 (1), p.45-63
Main Author: Camilleri, Marguerite
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Case studies
Development
Environment
Justice
Knowledge
Local communities
Malta
Modernity
Sustainability
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The aim of this paper is to examine whether the concept of environmental capacity is useful for implementing local sustainability. This concept suggests that there may be thresholds to the total amount of development that an area can sustain without losing its critical environmental features. By means of a case study in the popular seaside town of St. Julian's, Malta, the research uncovers a number of tensions for environmental capacity assessment, surrounding the themes of knowledge, environmental justice and modernity. It concludes that the concept does have transformative potential, challenging received wisdom about the relative usefulness of expert and lay knowledge, bringing to light processes responsible for significant differences between the residents themselves, and with other groups, and uncovering a critique of understandings of progress based on physical land development. However this potential is curtailed by weak institutions and the impotence of local residents when business and politics strike an alliance.
ISSN:1354-9839
1469-6711
DOI:10.1080/1354983042000176593