Community Capital

A Sustainable Approach to Community Development

Mark Roseland

SFU Centre for Sustainable Community Development – www.sfu.ca/cscd

“Remaking the Economy” Forum

March 7, 2009

SFU Centre for Sustainable Community Development

Mission: to enable the sustainable development of communities in BC, Canada, and around the world

Research, education, and community mobilization

Academic, professional, and outreach programs

A Big Title

Smaller Point Smaller Point 2 Smaller Point 3

Local Sustainability Examples Oslo, Norway - transit pass for downtown drivers Vancouver - climate action plan Minneapolis - restrictions on packaging California - water retrofit requirements San Luis Obispo - stream daylighting Zutphen, Holland - “disassembly” line

Peak Oil

A Model Sustainable Community

Sustainability Framework, Victoria, BC

Some Big Questions Can the paradigms (thinking), systems, and the

institutions that created these problems also be expected to solve them?

Can we remake our economy to provide the good things we need from economic development (jobs, income, wealth, security) without destroying our communities and the life-support systems upon which we depend?

Where can we look for models and examples that help demonstrate a sustainable economy?

The Development Significance of Sustainable Development SD represents a “historic compromise”

between the ideology of capitalism and its environmental critique

SD is coming of age

Sustainable Development does NOT simply mean

Environmental protection

Economic growth (presumably to pay for, among other things, environmental protection)

Three Core Elements of Sustainable Development

Environmental considerations must be entrenched in economic decisions and policy-making.

An inescapable commitment to social equity.

“Development” does not simply equal “growth.”

Sustainable Development means …

doing development differently

Four Key Ideas Sustainable development becomes

tangible when understood in terms of natural capital and natural income

Natural capital and social equity demand that the world’s wealthier people (e.g. most North Americans) find ways of living more lightly on the planet

Reducing materials and energy consumption can enhance quality of life and the public domain, e.g., multiply social capital

Critical resources for multiplying social capital are not (only) money, but trust, imagination, courage, commitment, relationships, and time

What is Sustainable Community Development?

SCD is sustainable development applied at the local level.

SCD means thinking globally and acting locally: it’s “glocal.”

SCD aims to integrate economic, social and environmental objectives in community development.

SCD considers economic factors and other community elements such as housing, education, the natural environment, health, accessibility and the arts

emerging as a compelling alternative; a participatory, holistic and inclusive process

SCD leads to positive, concrete changes in communities by creating employment, reducing poverty, restoring the health of the natural environment, stabilizing local economies, and increasing community control

Community Capital

Strengthening community capital for sustainable community development means focusing attention on six forms of capital…

Community CapitalCommunity CapitalA Framework for Sustainable Community DevelopmentA Framework for Sustainable Community Development

Natural Capital

Minimizing the consumption of essential natural capital, e.g.:living within ecological limits,

resource conservation and enhancement, cleaner production, less waste

Physical Capital

Improving physical capital, e.g.: community assets such as

facilities, water, transportation, housing, infrastructure, telecommunications

Economic Capital

Strengthening economic capital, e.g.:Making more with less, maximizing

use of existing resources, circulating the money, making something new, trading fairly, community financial institutions

Human Capital

Increasing Human Capital, e.g.:health, education, nutrition,

literacy, and family and community cohesion

Social Capital

Multiplying Social Capital, e.g.:local governance, strong

organizations, capacity-building, participatory planning, access to information, collaboration and partnerships

Cultural Capital

Enhancing Cultural Capital, e.g.:traditions and values, heritage and

place, the arts, diversity, and social history

A Framework for Sustainable Community Development

Sustainable development requires mobilizing citizens and their governments to strengthen all forms of community capital. Community mobilization is necessary to coordinate, balance and catalyse community capital.

Community CapitalCommunity CapitalA Framework for Sustainable Community DevelopmentA Framework for Sustainable Community Development

Sustainable community development seeks to mobilize community to strengthen all these forms of community capital.

Back to those Big Questions Can the paradigms (thinking), systems, and the

institutions that created these problems also be expected to solve them?

Can we remake our economy to provide the good things we need from economic development (jobs, income, wealth, security) without destroying our communities and the life-support systems upon which we depend?

Where can we look for models and examples that help demonstrate a sustainable economy?