Fenji Materechera

Realities of Sustainable Development: a Comparative Study Between Local Government and Householder Perspectives in Östersidan, Western Sweden Fenji Materechera

Research in the field of sustainable development (SD) suggests that the way in which sustainable development thinking has been infiltrated from a global perspective down to a more local one, leaves room for question as to whether or not the ideas of SD are being internalised in the self-same way by all stakeholders. This study aims to investigate whether SD thinking is universal across different groups in order to deduce how effective implementation of sustainable practices can and will be. The project is a case study of SD thinking amongst local residents of the small Swedish community of Östersidan in comparison to SD thinking from a local government perspective as proliferated through the Local Agenda 21 objectives of the local municipality under which Östersidan falls. The investigation was conducted by a series of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with local permanent residents and local municipal officials. Analysis was made using a constant comparative approach to analysing qualitative data.