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Previous research has identified factors affecting local government (LG) adoption of Local Agenda 21 (LA21). The objective of this research is to propose a measurement model and test it in the case of a specific region, the Basque Country. Research results show that the embrace of LA21 by LOs is explained by internal characteristics of LG and factors associated with LG environment, which is fostered, fundamentally, by higher levels of government that can create connected or networking processes. The most relevant external factors are associated with a concept under-emphasised in previous sustainable development literature: cocreation. We propose that, to achieve generalised diffusion of LA21-type tools, we should emphasise cocreation in networks instead of networks in general. The measurement model used in this research could be used in other contexts as a means of confirming or refuting our results and offer politicians a guide for achieving a more generalised and robust diffusion of LA21 processes. This research contributes to LA21 and innovation-adoption literatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I interrogate the relationship between environmental science and local governance in the United Kingdom. Effectively linking science and policy is critical to sustainable planning, and within the rhetoric of evidence-based policy it is often assumed that science conducted in a locality will feed linearly into the governance of that locality. This assumption is unpacked through the detailed study of an end-user-oriented environmental research project. I argue that the reproduction of separate scientific and political spheres prevented the research from being relevant to the governance of that locality. Theoretical and practical approaches to the spatialities of the research-policy interface are considered in order to politically reconstruct the local as a meaningful field of environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]