Experts and amateurs in the development of integrated community sustainability plans: Linking culture and sustainability

Abstract

In 2005, the federal government introduced a requirement that Canadian communities develop Integrated Community Sustainability Plans (ICSPs) in order to access Gas Tax money. These plans were to be based on a four-pillar model of sustainability that included not only environmental responsibility, but also economic health, social equity and cultural vitality. As communities set out to fulfill this requirement, they had to adopt new techniques to describe relationships among the four pillars and to engage a wide variety of stakeholders in the development of the plans. This article explores how ideas about culture and sustainability circulated among both experts (cultural planners) and non-experts (citizens), including the part played by new technologies in the exchange of ideas among stakeholders. It explores how the public was involved in determining the 'public interest' in these areas, and examines how experts interpreted their roles in the ICSP development process and engaged in the various stages of facilitating, guiding, framing, and informing public deliberation. The article also considers the contributions that both experts and non-experts made in articulating a vision for culture within the four-pillar model of sustainability.