Global lessons from local actions: A typology of polish local government approaches to sustainable development

Abstract

Our study aimed to distinguish between different groups of local governments using two dimensions: awareness and commitment to sustainability. Our survey addressed all local governments in Poland, and the survey response rate was close to 25% (N = 718). In the first step, we analysed the dimensions of local governments committed to sustainability, which local authorities attribute importance to. In the next step, we created an index of awareness of the importance and an index of local government's involvement in activities for sustainable development. The combination of the awareness and involvement indices allows distinguishing three separate groups (clusters) of local governments: those that are aware and involved (22.2% of the total), those that are aware and not involved (39.5%) and those that are unaware and not involved (38.3%). Moreover, the empirical results show a relationship between the financial situation of local governments and their allocation to a particular cluster.