The discursive community: evolving institutional structures for planning sustainability

Attempting to develop processes for the formulation of sustainable developm ent policy is imperative in contemporary society. Ecological economics offe rs the opportunity to consider the integration of economic, socio-cultural and environmental aspects of problems in sustainable development policy pro cesses. Practical engagement in the integration of these various facets of a problem requires a release from disciplinary and institutional rigidity. To enable this release requires an enhanced understanding of our cultural r eferents that have historically promoted these divisions and hierarchys in knowledge claims. This paper proposes that more effective sustainable devel opment processes can be sought by collectively considering the key ecologic al economic concepts of sustainability, transdisciplinary and methodologica l pluralism. These concepts facilitate the critique of conventional policy processes, which then give way to a reformulated sustainable development po licy process, termed the 'discursive community'. Through genuine stakeholde r collaboration, based on learning processes, the 'discursive community' is able to articulate strategy for sustainable development. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.