How Do Local Officials Conceptualize Sustainability as Practiced in Their Communities?: An Examination of U.S. Cities
How Do Local Officials Conceptualize Sustainability as Practiced in Their Communities?: An Examination of U.S. Cities
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地方官员如何构想其社区实践中的可持续发展？：对美国城市的考察
DOI：
10.1080/01944363.2024.2312941
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发表时间：
2024
影响因子：
5.6
通讯作者：
Park, Angela
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hofmeyer, Sarah L.;Hawkins, Christopher V.;Krause, Rachel M.;Park, Angela
问题、研究策略和发现尽管它们在塑造地方努力方面发挥了关键作用，但关于城市官员如何定义可持续发展的研究有限，因为它在他们的社区中得到了实践。为了解决这一限制，并为规划研究做出贡献，我们利用了由美国400多个 城市政府的可持续发展领导提供的独特的全国可持续发展定义数据集。我们的研究对这些陈述的定性分析是对现有研究的补充，通过探索关于可持续发展如何在地方一级被感知和实践的新兴主题。结果表明，从业者的概念化反映了五大取向类别：行动、愿望、情感、过程与组织、进步。我们评估了这些总体取向类别与城市的行政安排、政治环境、资源和能力的关联。研究结果表明，支持性背景与城市可持续发展工作人员以渴望的方式定义可持续发展有关，而不是强调进步或离散的行动。实践方面，我们使用他们在回答开放式调查问题时提供的自己的话，研究了城市可持续发展领导人如何描述其实践。我们发现，组织背景，包括可持续性预算、工作人员和政治支持的存在，与所提供的答复的基本性质的差异有关。这一点很重要，因为这些地方政府官员影响着可持续发展这一广泛目标在他们所在社区的实践方式。总体而言，我们的研究通过评估可持续发展专业人士如何以比以前的研究更细微的差异来定义可持续发展，并为解释为什么存在这种差异而建立了一个出发点，从而增加了规划专业的价值。
Problem, research strategy, and findingsAlthough they play a key role in shaping local efforts, there is limited research on how city officials define sustainability as it is practiced in their communities. To address this limitation and contribute to planning research, we leveraged a unique nationwide data set of sustainability definitions provided by the sustainability lead in more than 400 U.S city governments. Our study’s qualitative analysis of these statements complements existing research by exploring emerging themes on how sustainability is perceived and practiced at the local level. Results indicated that practitioners’ conceptualizations reflected five general orientation categories: action, aspiration, emotion, process and organization, and progress. We evaluated the association of these general orientation categories with cities’ administrative arrangements, political environments, resources, and capacities. Findings suggested that supportive contexts were associated with city sustainability staff defining sustainability in aspirational terms, as opposed to emphasizing progress or discrete actions.Takeaway for practiceWe examined how city sustainability leaders characterize its practice, using their own words provided in response to an open-ended survey question. We found that organizational context, including the presence of a sustainability budget, staff, and political support, was associated with differences in the fundamental nature of the responses provided. This is important because these local government officials influence how the broad objective of sustainability is practiced in their communities. Overall, our research adds value to the planning profession by assessing how sustainability professionals defined sustainability with greater nuance than previous studies and establishing a departure point for explaining why such differences exist.