Bridging Divides between Environmental Governance and Transnational Contestatory Movements: Culture of Politics and Institutional Perspectives in the Sustainable Development Agenda.

This paper analyses how global protest movements appropriate sustainable development as a subject in their agenda. Talk of sustainable development is heard within the framework of international protest especially when anti/alterglobalisation movements and World Social Forum networks discuss access to water supplies, the solidarity-based economy or, from an even more critical viewpoint, a sustainable flat growth. Anti/alterglobalists call sustainable development into question through their position with regard to the neoliberal model, which they say tends to ignore the diversity of culture and the special features of local history. As we wish to demonstrate in this paper, the question that is central to the strategic future of sustainable development is closely related to the political legitimacy of the actors who speak in the name of a broader project for a sustainable society. The content of so-called actions for sustainable development refers to projects for a society that bear a risk of once again dividing development players in the North and the South. In order to meet the challenge of political analysis of the world sustainable development agenda, we address the three following series of questions: - How is international protest organized? Who are the actors? (Part 1) - How is sustainable development envisaged at the World Social Forum (WSF)? What are the main discussions with the WSF that are directly related to sustainable development? (Part 2)- Why and how may the definition of sustainable development interest WSF actors? How do international protesters associate the issue of political participation with that of sustainable development? (Part 3) ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]