La Agenda 21 Local en Europa. La segunda fase de la modernización ecológica en los gobiernos municipales

Ecological modernisation as a theoretical construction has mainly dealt with changes on a national level and in connection with industrial and economic development. However, the role of local government has also increasingly become one feature of interest within the modernisation process. Local level governance plays a crucial role especially concerning the second phase of modernisation — that of involving inhabitants, stakeholder groups and smaller production units towards a common goal of sustainable development. Many of these activities in Europe are conducted under the organisational headline of Local Agenda 21. European local governments have been in the forefront of taking up the new challenge. In this paper we will show how local governments in different parts of Europe have responded to this task. The empirical material will be based on our large dataset collected within DISCUS research project.