Author(s): Venkataramana Karri, Jalaja Enamala, Gopal Krishna Sanapala, Hemangine Rai, K.R. Chandrakala
Urban India currently has a negative sustainable approach captured in two of the main narratives concerning the urban space. These include the community-developed zero-waste and the corporate greenwashing approach. This comparative ethnography study seeks to document and analyze the corporately and community-developed narratives of sustainability in the cities of Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune. We spent one month in each of the cities, conducting and transcribing a total of 48 interviews, and performing document reviews and participatory observations. We found that the community-developed zero-waste lanes policy resulted in partnerships and civic narratives of stewardship and social community ownership. The corporate-developed policies, on the other hand, resulted in the narratives of the social community and corporate advocacy from a community-developed sustainability perspective. The narratives developed from the civic and corporate policy engagements integrated reflexively formed the governance from policy; the civic and corporate engagements aligned and flowed public resources from the civic advocated to the social and corporate invested in public sustainability. The study contributes to sustainability governance literature and forms a sustainability paradox and civic and corporate narratives to and beyond digital binaries for sustainability governance.