The idea of community looms large in the current environmental debate. It offers a locus of action that complements both the national and international protocols and the individual behavioral changes that have, until recently, dominated the environmental agenda.

This article describes a template for implementing an integrated community sustainability plan. The template emphasisescommunity engagement and outlines the components of a basic framework for integrating ecological, social and economic dynamics in a community. The framework is a series of steps that support a sustainable community development process.

In recent years the concept of social capital has gained great currency in discussions of community development, but connections to notions of place have not been widely addressed. This article considers the quality of place and its centrality to social capital. The authors draw from the experience of a small rural community in British Columbia, Canada.

The creation of a sense of place has emerged as a goal of many community development initiatives. However, little thought has been given to the role of physical spaces in the shaping of possible senses of place.

It has been argued that economic growth can continue despite the finite nature of the Earth and its ecological systems if growth is concentrated in an ethereal economy where ideas and information dominate over physical inputs.

The research reported here explores a community that amassed social capital in effective and diverse ways, enabling it to fight a corporate giant and protect critical, large watersheds. We explore how the dynamic interaction between network formation and network structure augmented community social capital, particularly bridging, for increased access to human and economic capital.

A local sustainable development initiative to establish a temporary pedestrian zone within a Canadian urban community served as a research study into the efficacy of social capital in the development of a network for community action.

Most planners have heard the term “social capital”. It is becoming common in many community development discussions. Social capital is those features of social organization, like trust, social or cultural norms, and the networks by which communities facilitate action or just keep themselves going.

Sustainable development is a contested concept, but continues to be popular at all levels of organization. At the grassroots level, many groups are creating networks to address ecological and social issues associated with sustainable development.

Using the example of the Dearne Valley in South Yorkshire, England, a notion of multifunctionality, and its potential to be utilized in post-industrial regeneration is explored.