Our research focuses on the European experience of Local Agenda 21 (LA21) implantation, such as it has been understood within the general framework that was mainly defined by the 1992 United Nations proposal, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) methodologies, Aalborg 1994, and Aalborg+10 (eg Echebarria et al, 2004). We adopt the degree of implantation of LA21 processes as our dependent variable and we focus on explaining its drivers.LA21 has been defined as a local action plan for tackling environmental, social, and economic issues (Hewitt, 1995;Lafferty, 2001) through new forms of involvement and cooperation (O'Riordan and Voisey, 1998;Pellizzoni, 2001) that lead to quality-of-life improvement (Meister and Japp, 1998). Civil society involvement and three-dimensional sustainable development (SD) perspective (including social, economic, and environmental targets) are essential elements of LA21. So we focus on three-dimensional and participative LA21 processes.There exists an important consensus that the environmental, social, and economic targets of SD will not be met without the full involvement of local governments (LGs) (1) and of civil society (eg Krueger and Agyeman, 2005). Many of the problems and solutions relating to SD are to be found at a local level (in the area of dispersed pollution, for instance). In the 1980s, many governments made advances within what is known as the first phase of ecological modernisation (eg Weale, 1992). In the 1990s the targets of environmental policy changed from a calculable number of large-scale industrial producers to a much larger number of small-scale producers and consumers.

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A consensus exists regarding the idea that, in the search for sustainable development (SD), Local Agenda 21 (LA21) is a key tool for implementing a set of sustainability policies at local level. From a consensus of this nature both an important flow of scientific production and a significant degree of real implementation might be expected. However, a review of the literature and a real case-study (Spain) lead us to conclude that although increasing effort is being made in both fields, there is still a long way to go.

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A great deal of regional research has focused on the innovation-competitivenessgrowth chain, which is implicit in territorial innovation models (TIMs). TIMs literature has neglected or subordinated social and ecological regional conditions. This research adopts a broader perspective by: (i) studying an interscalar intergovernmental network aimed at meeting tridimensional sustainable development (SD) goals; and (ii) showing why this arrangement is successful. The network members are the regional government and provincial councils, which act as network promoters, and the municipalities. We model the network as a platform for integrating both pre-existing idiosyncratic resources and emergent resources/benefits that come from rich and regular interactions (in the shape of learning, enjoyment, reputation, identification, and attitude towards citizen participation); resources integration leads to network member satisfaction. This view is supported by data concerning a network in a Spanish autonomous community (region), Castile-La Mancha. We see this study as a first step towards more systematic research on what might be termed 'territorial sustainability models'. JEL classification: R1, R3, R5