Exploring the role of local community perceptions in sustainability measurements

Abstract

Measuring sustainability is an integral part of decision-making processes in order to promote sustainable development. The present paper focuses on sustainability indicators as these are measured on local level and explores two main issues: firstly, the subjective measurement of indicators focusing especially on social dimensions of sustainability, secondly, the incorporation of local perceptions in sustainability assessments. These two issues are explored in the Asopos River basin in Greece, an area where significant environmental degradation has been observed in the past decades and is also under financial pressure due to the ongoing national recession. A large-scale research study was conducted measuring environmental, economic and social indicators while, at a second stage, a model was developed, estimating new indicators that incorporate local communities’ perceptions on what they considered as important for their area. The results of the study reveal that the most important indicators for the sustainable development of the area, according to locals’ perceptions, are environmental quality as well as quality of life. By contrast, trust in local and central institutions and also local enterprises were not considered as important by locals. These results illustrate the importance of combining global and national scale assessment with locally focused social measurements of sustainability in order to better understand what is important for local communities prior to embarking on public policy planning.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2019.1638330
Divisions: College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School > Operations & Information Management
Funding Information: This work was supported by the European Social Fund and Greek national funds through the Operational Program “Education and Lifelong Learning” of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) - Research Funding Program: THALES. [379350].
Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology on 14 July 2019, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13504509.2019.1638330
Uncontrolled Keywords: Environmental degradation,Greece,industrial zones,participatory measurement,water contamination,Geography, Planning and Development,Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Publication ISSN: 1745-2627
Last Modified: 12 Feb 2024 08:30
Date Deposited: 09 Sep 2019 07:33
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
https://www.tan ... 09.2019.1638330 (Publisher URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2019-08-18
Published Online Date: 2019-07-14
Accepted Date: 2019-06-27
Authors: Jones, N.
Malesios, C. (ORCID Profile 0000-0003-0378-3939)
Aloupi, M.
Proikaki, M.
Tsalis, T.
Hatziantoniou, M.
Dimitrakopoulos, P. G.
Skouloudis, A.
Holtvoeth, J.
Nikolaou, I.
Stasinakis, A. S.
Kalantzi, O. I.
Gatidou, G.
Zkeri, E.
Koulousaris, M.
Evangelinos, K. I.

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