TY - JOUR
T1 - Is regional government-governance nexus delivering on social sustainability promises?
T2 - Empirical evidence from Moranbah in Australia
AU - Basson, Marita
AU - van Rensburg, Henriette
AU - Cuthill, Michael
AU - Erdiaw-Kwasie, Michael O.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/11/2
Y1 - 2018/11/2
N2 - Social sustainability, in theory, should result in responsiveness to change, a durable sense of community trust and interdependent institutional structures. However, recent studies indicate that current sustainability efforts of regional local government are not yielding anticipated outcomes. Drawing on two social theories of Henri Lefebvre, this paper offers an empirical analysis of the ability of the government–governance nexus to deliver on social sustainability promises in Moranbah in regional Australia. Study findings revealed that the Moranbah government–governance nexus suffers from adversarial relationships between key actors that result in a distrust of politics and power, the absence of a defined governance system, community alienation, and State Government dominance and intervention. These experiences of the government–governance nexus have rendered social sustainability a distant hope for Moranbah’s residents. This paper suggests a reform in sustainability policies to improve the current situation in the case region, and theoretical propositions for future research.
AB - Social sustainability, in theory, should result in responsiveness to change, a durable sense of community trust and interdependent institutional structures. However, recent studies indicate that current sustainability efforts of regional local government are not yielding anticipated outcomes. Drawing on two social theories of Henri Lefebvre, this paper offers an empirical analysis of the ability of the government–governance nexus to deliver on social sustainability promises in Moranbah in regional Australia. Study findings revealed that the Moranbah government–governance nexus suffers from adversarial relationships between key actors that result in a distrust of politics and power, the absence of a defined governance system, community alienation, and State Government dominance and intervention. These experiences of the government–governance nexus have rendered social sustainability a distant hope for Moranbah’s residents. This paper suggests a reform in sustainability policies to improve the current situation in the case region, and theoretical propositions for future research.
KW - government–governance nexus
KW - Lefebvre theories
KW - resource town
KW - Social sustainability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85049592132&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/03003930.2018.1488689
DO - 10.1080/03003930.2018.1488689
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85049592132
SN - 0300-3930
VL - 44
SP - 826
EP - 847
JO - Local Government Studies
JF - Local Government Studies
IS - 6
ER -