Research
Research Mission
Our research centers on the strategies and needs of state and local governmental and non-governmental actors engaged in the challenge of creating healthy, prosperous and environmentally responsible localities and regions around the world. The IGSD's approach to sustainable development research builds on a set of theoretical perspectives and unique institutional assets:
Interdisciplinarity
Sustainable development, which is understood broadly as policies and processes that foster our mutually reinforcing social, economic, and environmental systems, is an inherently interdisciplinary field of research and creativity. IGSD faculty and research staff bring their combined experience in local and regional economic development, urban policy and planning, environmental philosophy and policy, water, energy and solid waste resources management, rural development, information management, vulnerability assessment, risk management and resource economics to bear on a small, but comprehensive set of research foci that lie at the intersection of sustainable development and localities (see below).
Theory and practice
The ability of localities to respond successfully to sustainable development challenges is often constrained by limited knowledge and resources and competing interests, power relations, and ideas about the direction for social change. IGSD faculty research extends from the highly theoretical (e.g., understanding sustainable development as a contestable discourse and set of political and institutional strategies) to the directly applicable (e.g., faculty research and hundreds of student projects for local agencies throughout the world). It is particularly at the intersection between theory and practice -- where ideas become actions at the local scale -- that we seek to make a unique and important contribution to research and the communities in which we work.
Last modified: March 28, 2007 11:46:10