Sustainable development is popular, but also radical and indeterminate concept, with many meanings and interpretations. It is therefore quite understandable that it is difficult to implement in the real life. A lot has to be done in coordinating the measures on the local level in order to prevent shocks which would destabilize communities. But just the fact that the concept is provocative makes it effective in stimulating the discussion on numerous questions considering sound, sustainable development. This paper tries to structure the concept of sustainability in order to clarify its social potential.
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COBISS.SI-ID: 31261533Public opinion surveys investigating the levels of environmental awareness target the most diverse aspects of environment pollution, but they rarely examine people's attitudes to the ways and forms in which space itself is used or consumed, especially in the context of residential or settlement patterns. This article analyses the connection between the prevailing long-term value orientations about residential preferences in Slovenia, which we associate with an ideology of "anti-urbanism", and the resulting "schizophrenic" environmental perception, which expresses itself as relatively high declared environmental awareness of people who do not live in a town. Extensive and dispersed use of the physical space (defined as a sprawl) is in general one of the issues of environmental degradation. Dispersion and low settlement density, as well as the connected consumption of physical space in detached houses, is even more rarely addressed as the key issue of the environment problem. The absence of comprehensive "ecologisation" of the ways in which space is consumed for residential purposes in Slovenia is of a structural nature. Its structural captivity is identified on ideological, institutional, planning, and individual levels. Dispersed individualised settlement is critically addressed, but usually seen from the angle of pollution and not as an immanent ecological problem, i.e. the consumption of space as a rare commodity. In surveys on spatial values, we come across the phenomenon that parochial ruralism is equated with environmentalism, something we explain with a schizophrenic environmental perception, when respondents consider living in individual family houses environmentally more acceptable than living in multi-dwelling houses in an urban environment.
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COBISS.SI-ID: 31263581In the introduction, the role of sociology in urban and spatial development is critically evaluated. Although an open information flow and the participation of citizens in decision-making are widely recognised in many national systems and although it looks like formal system arrangements support the argumentative substantial rationality, it is however not difficult to notice that such ideal conditions are quite often virtual wishful thinking. Instrumental communicative techniques are in fact supporting reduced strategic-goal-oriented rationality. Such techniques present urban planning as democratic and transparent, conflicts are avoided, emerging questions are processed in a partnership mood, different institutional arrangements are invented in order to alleviate tensions etc. In fact, this technology inhibits substantial argumentative rationality. The fundamental goals are not questioned at all; instead, negligible questions are gaining priority. As a consequence, the crisis of legitimisation processes is deepening. The management of urban and spatial development is used as a practical example of such reduced rationality.
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COBISS.SI-ID: 29474397Public survey was prepared in four phases. First phase was the analysis of theoretical and practical sources, dealing with thematic of congestion charge including the sources of the Centre of spatial sociology, University of Ljubljana, which deals with mobility habits of citizens. In the second phase the questionnaire was prepared on themes, which could be relevant for the future implementation of cc tax in Ljubljana. Questions were adapted to be simple, understandable and comprehensive to wider public. For that the term “congestion charge” was adapted to “financial compensation for entering the city”, internally the entrance tax. During this phase the questionnaire was also thematically focused and delimited for the intended use. Also the sampling model and focus groups were carefully defined. The sampling pattern does not follow the demographic structure of inhabitants but is adapted to cover focus groups in question. This questionnaire was discussed on several meetings with partners of CE project in order to be improved for further discussions to the final version, which was tested practically on limited number of people in the context of structure of questions and their proper formulation. In the third phase, public survey was run. In the final, fourth phase, data were digitalised for statistical analysis.
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COBISS.SI-ID: 30688861In October and December 2008, the first public opinion survey of public opinion on the corridor locations in Ljubljana was conducted as part of the CIVITAS ELAN project. Within the two weeks of terrain work, more than 1000 questionnaires were collected and processed into the database for further analysis. The first results of the research showed that the automobile transport has extremely deep roots in the transport structure of Ljubljana. Most of the respondents stated that car is the primary source of transport for a number of activities such as shopping, work, visits to sports facilities etc. More specifically - 33.2% of respondents stated that they use car for their everyday transport work (school), while only 11.4% walk and 9.8% use bus transport. It is important to mention that the vast majority of respondents who answered to survey also stated that they they drive alone in the car. However, survey results also show strong support for measures that would change the present modal split in Ljubljana. Respondents thus strongly support the construction of additional parking spaces P & R, the introduction of a single transport ticket, the introduction of the yellow band, the introduction of electronic information displays on bus arrivals, environmentally more friendly buses and other measures.
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COBISS.SI-ID: 29302621