The promotion of sustainable regeneration: varying interpretations and valuations among practitioners in the Lee Valley

This research has developed out of an interest in exploring the relationship between the promotion of sustainability within regeneration as a high-level policy commitment, and the actual process of definition of sustainability policy goals at the local level. The research has been informed by the idea that the notion of sustainable development is characterised by a key ideological dimension, given by the fact that people hold different ideas about the role of the environment and the direction of societal development. In addition, the notion that sustainability refers to a complex and dynamic condition related to the viability of the relationship between societies and the environment over a long time is central to the conceptualisation of the research topic. These ideas have led to the examination of two main questions. First how different interpretations of sustainable development inform the process of the formulation of sustainable development policy goals within regeneration. Second, how the actors' valuation of regeneration objectives contribute to shaping the relationship between societies and the environment.
The research shows how ambiguities and lack of clarity in the definition of the basic policy goal have left scope for different players in the implementation process to identify their own interpretations of its meaning. This has taken place under the influence of the culture of their organisation, their own agency's policy priorities and of the activities and interests defined by the processes in which they are engaged. Findings suggest that given the wide range of policy themes coming together under regeneration policy, the various policy discourses, championed by different groups of actors, concur in the definition of the regeneration agenda. With respect to the promotion of sustainability the co-existence of different policy discourses results in the creation of discrete and contextual actors' accounts where the environmental dimension of regeneration initiatives is defined and circumscribed. In particular, the analysis of the actors' valuation of regeneration objectives and of the environmental transformations that such objectives entail, offers an interesting insight into the power of discourses to reinforce certain arguments, at the expense of others. In addition, it demonstrates how the social processes, in which the actors are involved, shape their valuation of regeneration objectives and overall their understanding of sustainable development policy goals.

A thesis submitted to Middlesex University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.