Cultural sources of variations in US urban sustainability attributes

In a set of US urban areas, this study documents patterns of association between multiple measures of sustainability policies and outcomes on the one hand and indicators of three principal political culture theories on the other. Five dimensions of urban sustainability attributes are examined (environmental, public health, economic utility, sprawl, and local government plans and policies) as well as a summative index across the five dimensions. The three political culture theories are creative class, social capital, and historical legacy. First, the analysis examines the relationships among the five dimensions of sustainability. Second, a correlation analysis exhibits further evidence of major effects attributable to social capital and historical legacy cultural heritage. Third, a multiple regression analysis predicts the summative sustainability index score by measures for creative class, social capital, moralistic cultural legacy, and controls for education level and percentage of low income households; both a moralistic cultural heritage and strong social capital are shown to be facilitative contexts for a US city making a commitment to sustainability, even in the presence of demographic controls. The results suggest that environmental professionals engaged in sustainability efforts must be cognizant of their cultural context and of the linkages among different sustainability domains. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.