From Century 21 to Local Agenda 21: Sustainable development and local urban communities in East and West Berlin (Germany), and Seattle (United States)

In this study I analyze exceptional sustainable development initiatives as local urban community responses to globalizing social and ecological problems, using a historical time frame and conceptual framework from the 1962 City of Seattle "Century 21 World's Fair" to the 1992 UN Rio "Agenda 21." Whereas the Century 21 Fair manifested an elite approach to urban development that marketed a future of high technology, unlimited growth and accumulation, the Agenda 21, particularly through its "Local Agenda 21" (LA 21), brought attention to problems generated by unlimited growth, and represented a step toward balancing global economic development interests with those of civil society and local communities.;I study U.S. and German examples as I assume LA 21 related efforts in these countries are key to the success of any eventual global sustainable development. I examine three "local urban communities:" a city block, a neighborhood, and a city district, in East and West Berlin, and in Seattle. I ask what these communities are capable of achieving with "local resources," and to what extent they are dependent on, encouraged, and restricted by external conditions and city, national, and international level programs. Finally, I analyze the roles of civil society and the historical evolution and accumulation of local resources and capacities, to generate a theory of sustainable local development.;Given current ecological and socio-political conditions, I conclude that such local urban community efforts at sustainable development are more likely to be motivated by ethical concerns than ecological limits, initiated and driven by civil society actors with long histories of development, and dependent on substantial external support. LA 21 kinds of local initiatives to rediscover, mobilize and redevelop local resources and capacities, especially in American communities but also German, are likely to be frustrated as they are at odds with urban, national and international level development policies emphasizing aggressive economic growth and world trade. Further, American "sustainable development" projects prioritizing "local quality of life" may inadvertently provide support to expansionist and globally unsustainable development strategies in that local sustainability may be "imported" from distant communities including environments and populations in "developing countries."...