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This paper explores the opportunities and contradictions in applying concepts of sustainable development to land use policy. The conceptual framework is provided by 'stock maintenance' models of sustainability and a distinction is made between material, postmaterial and non-instrumental dimensions of sustainability which relate in complex ways to the use and development of land. Though concepts of sustainability are gaining ground in planning and related disciplines, translating theory into policy remains problematic. Principles of sustainability challenge the presumption in favour of development and sit uneasily with the utilitarian notion of 'balance'. They require an alternative ethical basis and, especially in the postmaterial realm, are inherently bound up with value theory. These issues are illustrated by the problem of defining 'critical natural capital'. Political commitments to sustainability were made, and to some extent encoded in planning policies, before the challenge to a demand-led economy was fully grasped. Far from effecting reconciliation, defining what is sustainable will expose conflict more starkly and at an earlier stage in the planning process. As environment-led plans and decisions are challenged by development interests, there will be opportunities to test these conclusions in specific empirical contexts.
Susan Owens (1994) studied this question.