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Abstract
Since the late 1980s, upmarket tourist and residential golf resorts, golf-centered development (GCD) henceforth, are spreading in the environmentally sensitive and already stressed coastal Mediterranean Europe. This paper examines, on a Mediterranean-wide level, whether and under what conditions GCD is (or might be) a sustainable local and regional development option. After reviewing the main features of GCD in coastal Mediterranean Europe, it conducts a soft sustainability test using a set of criteria that reflect the overarching quest to maintain the present and future integrity of local and regional socio-ecological systems. The criteria are assessed using primary and secondary information for coastal Mediterranean Europe complemented with international evidence where appropriate. The findings indicate that the principal criteria of resource maintenance and use efficiency, livelihood sufficiency and opportunity and intra- and intergenerational equity as well as the necessary conditions to achieve them may not always be satisfactorily met. A summative evaluation, guided by Aristotelian phronesis in balancing multiple goals under conditions of uncertainty, suggests that GCD engenders considerable risks to sustainable local and regional development in coastal Mediterranean Europe. Siting GCD should be embedded within cautious strategic regional planning that is multifunctional, collaborative and adaptive. In closing, the paper indicates future research directions.
