Sustainability Is An Essentially Contested Concept

Abstract

In October 2011, CFGnet (Cities as Forces for Good Network) published a Sustainability Concepts Paper: “Cities as Forces for Good in the Environment: Sustainability in the Water Sector” (Beck, 2011). Authored by chemical and environmental engineer M Bruce Beck, this grand oeuvre addresses the Big Questions of how one might approach the re-engineering of city infrastructures, subject to the “Triple Bottom Line” of environmental benignity, economic feasibility and social legitimacy. Michael Thompson comments.