CONCLUSION

  As Kemmis (1990) notes, this final element was the key to Missoula's success. Sustainable community development requires new practices of cooperation. These practices, it has been argued, depend on a strong community field and the social capital which emerges as relationships are forged across interest lines. Without communicative bonds and linkages among special interest fields, the kind of long term collective action necessary to achieve a sustainable community is unlikely to occur; narrow economic interests are likely to dominate local politics, and measures taken under the rubric of sustainable community development will arguably be little more than symbolic concessions aimed at placating or coopting disgruntled residents. To avoid such pitfalls, principles of sustainability must be coupled with efforts to build the community field.

  To date, this relationship has received relatively little attention because definitions of the sustainable community leave the concept of community largely unexamined. Instead, an active model of community is assumed, and definitions tend to emphasize the overall characteristics of the sustainable community. This assumption and the resulting definitions were shown to be problematic in several respects. Drawing on an interactional approach to community, we stressed the importance of focusing on the communicative linkages that are a prerequisite to the kinds of collective actions and political relationships necessary to the development of more environmentally sustainable communities. This is a broader process than that described by most proponents of sustainable community development. It requires, in addition to intervention strategies and measures of selected aspects of sustainable community development (Kline, 1995), an explicit policy emphasis on strategies to build the community field and generate social capital.

effrey C. Bridger is a senior research associate at the Institute for Policy Research and Evaluation at Penn State. His interests include community growth and change, social theory, and community development. His current work focuses on developing a narrative approach to the study of community change. Dr. Bridger is conducting an analysis of barriers to sustainable community development in rural areas.

Jeffrey C. Bridger
236 Ag. Admin. Building
Penn State
University Park, PA 16802
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E-mail: jcb8@psu.edu