This paper draws upon the DISCUS (Developing Institutional and Social Capacity for Sustainable Development) research project, co-funded by the European Commission. The project was undertaken during 2001�-�2004 and involved an in-depth study of 40 European towns and cities in order to understand the institutional and social factors and conditions that might contribute to policy 'achievement' or 'failure' in local sustainable development policy and practice. Based on the findings of this research it proposes a conceptual framework for local sustainable development, linking the concepts of institutional capital, social capital and governance to provide a model for understanding the governing of local sustainability. The research shows that in those cases that exhibit sustainable development policy achievements, there are also greater levels of civil society activity and knowledge regarding sustainability issues, and high levels of institutional capacity. Confident local government is crucial to the development of institutional capacity and to institutional learning. One aspect of this is local authorities being equipped to address the longer-term issues and to have a strategic vision for a sustainable future.

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Grid-group theory claims that patterns of social relations only, and not socio-demographic characteristics, can account for biases, of which the theory prescribes four: hierarchy, egalitarianism, individualism and fatalism. Survey analysts conventionally employ respondents' socio-demographic correlates when accounting for values. We take the value survey strategy and apply it to grid-group theory's four biases. Employing a 1999 survey administered in Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland (n = 4,832), we combine two goals in this article. We test how sex, age, education and income can account for biases. By extension, we test grid-group theory's claim of no such effect. The results show that biases are influenced by socio-demographics in ways unaccounted for by the theory. The four correlates explain on average 9 per cent of the variation in the biases. Education is the only correlate that has a negative and significant effect across all biases in all countries. Women adhere to egalitarianism, whereas men adhere to individualism. Age is a consistent positive correlate of hierarchy, whereas income is a consistent negative correlate of fatalism. Grid-group theory will not be impaired if it can be shown how robust socio-demographic correlates interact with patterns of social relations.

Grid-group theory claims that patterns of social relations only, and not socio-demographic characteristics, can account for biases, of which the theory prescribes four: hierarchy, egalitarianism, individualism and fatalism. Survey analysts conventionally employ respondents' socio-demographic correlates when accounting for values. We take the value survey strategy and apply it to grid-group theory's four biases. Employing a 1999 survey administered in Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland (n = 4,832), we combine two goals in this article. We test how sex, age, education and income can account for biases. By extension, we test grid-group theory's claim of no such effect. The results show that biases are influenced by socio-demographics in ways unaccounted for by the theory. The four correlates explain on average 9 per cent of the variation in the biases. Education is the only correlate that has a negative and significant effect across all biases in all countries. Women adhere to egalitarianism, whereas men adhere to individualism. Age is a consistent positive correlate of hierarchy, whereas income is a consistent negative correlate of fatalism. Grid-group theory will not be impaired if it can be shown how robust socio-demographic correlates interact with patterns of social relations.

No abstract