From INGIS to NAMOS – Operationalisation and contextualisation of sustainability at the local level

Due to its fuzziness the model of sustainable development has to be particularised and contextualised before any positioning with respect to this yardstick. The spread of the concept of sustainable development has not been thwarted by its extreme vagueness or its current lack of generally binding operationalisation. On the contrary: its conceptual ambiguity has in all likelihood significantly boosted its appeal by enabling stakeholders to focus on their favourite elements within a process of discourse dominated by the struggle for the power of definition.