Achieving sustainable energy and resource use is vital if cities are to thrive or even function in the long term. Focusing on cities in the United Kingdom, Germany and Denmark, this book examines the mounting pressures for changes in the management style of utility services in Europe, pressures that stem from a wide range of sources such as liberalization and privatization of markets, tighter environmental standards, new economic incentives, competing technologies and changing consumption patterns.

Achieving sustainable energy and resource use is vital if cities are to thrive or even function in the long term. Focusing on cities in the United Kingdom, Germany and Denmark, this book examines the mounting pressures for changes in the management style of utility services in Europe, pressures that stem from a wide range of sources such as liberalization and privatization of markets, tighter environmental standards, new economic incentives, competing technologies and changing consumption patterns.

In April 1997 a group of social scientists in Germany came together to form a task force on institutional dimensions of global environmental change. At the time they were all engaged in research projects funded by the German Re search Council (DFG) within its Priority Programme "Global Environmental Change - Social and Behavioural Dimensions." Coming initially from the fields of political science and sociology they were motivated by a common interest in advancing knowledge on processes of institutional change relevant to major environmental problems. By exploring the capacity of diverse disci...