This book analyzes how governance and climate change adaptation - both integral to sustainable development - operate outside the bureaucratic apparatus of the state. It examines 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' approaches to sustainable development and looks at a possible 'middle-out' approach to resolving the challenges to sustainable development.

The book also includes case studies from India and Bangladesh, which show that community-level factors such as social and cultural capital are key to the success of sustainable development efforts.