Institutional and Human Resources for Sustainability

This article explores the kinds of institutional arrangements most likely to be able to address sustainability issues. The term “institutions” is taken to mean the wide array of social, political, legal, and economic arrangements, structures, and rules—not simply institutions of the state, but of community and society more broadly. Of particular interest here is the interconnection of people and institutions through community participation, enhanced human capacity, and mutual learning. First, the article sketches the nature of the sustainability challenge, and then suggests the kinds of institutions appropriate to this challenge, through the description of institutional principles and attributes. It then considers briefly some issues of human resources involving participation, education, and research and development. Sustainability requires the close integration of economic, social, and environmental concerns, and thus is a supremely difficult challenge. An “adaptive” approach, as sketched here, seems a useful way to integrate the activities and concerns of communities, scientists and professionals, firms and governments. Recent political theory, and the lessons and problems encountered in practice, suggest iterative, mutually informing and discursive ways of “doing” politics and policy. There would appear to be no better field in which to advance, test, and develop such a political future than sustainable development.