From promising preaching to piloting the promise and teaching what is promising in planning practice

Abstract

This chapter describes the National Spatial Development Perspective of South Africa (NSDP) District Application Project, which was initiated by the national Presidency of South Africa. In this pilot an attempt was made to test both the prospects and limitations of key constructs germane to both planning and sustainability science in a number of district municipal planning processes, and the extent to which these concepts had found acceptance in these districts. While limited to a sample of municipalities (13 of the 52 metro and district municipalities in South Africa) and not conducted specifically from a sustainability science perspective, the study does offer a range of lessons and areas of interest, recorded during and after the project intervention, for those serious about seeing the word of sustainability science becoming flesh