Sustainable Development: a Reference for Public Policy; Its Attractivity and the Tensions

The notion of sustainable development has been getting a more favourable reception in the past few years; a context theoretically favourable to its implementation. But the question is to know whether this is indeed the case. Therefore the applicability of a notion passes inevitably by the filter of local practices which test its robustness and its aptness. It is in this light that we shall try to show how this principle is integrated by politicians or how the latter make a pretence of integrating the issue in order to complicate the issues. We shall formulate the hypothesis that the principles of sustainable development, through sensible practices, offer local authorities an opportunity to restore its multiple spatial and social dimensions to the environment.