Sustainable development involves satisfying the needs of the present generation without compromising the chances for future generations. Quality of life thus plays an important part in determining how we can achieve sustainable development. What are the perspectives for the 21st century? People, Places and Sustainability presents new approaches to traditional issues of people-environment studies and environmental psychology, looked at in the light of sustainability.

The contributions brought together in this book cover the main issues addressed by the International Association of People-Environment Studies (IAPS), which includes psychologists, sociologists, architects, and designers.

The book is divided into four main sections:
Urban Change and Sustainability discusses the cultural and historical references as models for sustainable cities. Today's metropolises host increasingly culturally heterogeneous populations.
Community, Attachment and Identity looks at the conditions for their sustainable development in the light of communities' participation, through processes of identification and place attachment. People's relations to their immediate residential surroundings, their workplaces, or learning environments, significantly influence their health and well-being.
The contributions to Proximal and Specific Spaces concern requirements of environmental layout and design which enable them to become sustainable.
Finally, Global Environment Issues and Ecological Behavior points at ways to promote ecologically favorable behavior in order to achieve the conditions required for sustainable development.