Governing Sustainability Locally: A Place-based Cornish Case Study

Sustainability scholars have traditionally focussed on global and national governance spheres, but the increase of “localism” means that subnational governments and local governance—including local businesses—are also becoming an integral part of these systems. Drawing on an ethnographic case study of a rural county in the South-West of England, we examine how the concept of place impacts local sustainability governance. We contribute by: (1) demonstrating how local sustainability governance is part of broader multilevel governance systems, in which governance divisions happens along place-based lines rather than public-private spheres; (2) theorising how local sustainability governance is different because of its “local pragmatist” approach, emphasizing problem-solving, deliberation, creative action, and experimentation between local businesses, governments and civil society; and (3) explaining how local sustainability governance can alters the initial ‘sense of place’ through collective place-forming, bridging insights from geography studies. Our contributions help to complete the picture of sustainability governance and sketches an alternative, place-based governance system to enhance the resilience of societies and economies in the face of sustainability challenges.