Sustainable community development: its enablers and impediments

Abstract

This research sought to determine what, in community representatives' opinions, are the enablers and impediments to sustainable community development and well-being in Golden Bay. It posited that the contexts in which the community is situated - for example, political, economic, environmental, social and cultural - would effect the community's ability to attain sustainable development and well-being. An exploratory case study was undertaken, including in-depth interviews with seven local representatives of the community, central government and local government sectors in Golden Bay. Snowball, purposive sampling was used, with triangulation and thematic data analysis. Interviewees generally supported the relevance of the enablers of sustainable community development identified in the literature, but felt that there are impediments to sustainable community development in Golden Bay. These appear to be strongly connected to contexts within which it is located. This suggests that the enablers of sustainable community development identified in A Framework for Developing Sustainable Communities (Department of Internal Affairs, 2002) may provide a useful guide for government investment in building strong communities. However, it also indicates that contextual issues matter and that providing essential services and strengthening the enablers of sustainable community development may be insufficient for communities to successfully traverse a journey to sustainability and well-being. The research also found that the concepts of sustainable community development and well-being are subjective and that it is important that communities identify their own well-being goals. A comparison with the literature of the themes identified from this research suggests that some of the findings are likely to be relevant to other communities in New Zealand. Recommendations from this research relate to increasing the likelihood that government departments can be enablers of sustainable community development rather than potential impediments. A recommendation of the Community and Voluntary Sector Working Party for a seminar series and other initiatives to improve understanding within government agencies of iwi/Māori, community and voluntary sector aims, objectives, structures, accountability arrangements and operating realities is supported. However, it is argued that these seminars should also be used to improve the knowledge of government operational staff of policies that aim to make government an enabler of sustainable community development.