Spatial approach to sustainable development: Challenges of equity and efficacy

The present paper considers the two challenges of equity and efficacy, and it tries to specify the variables that influence each of them in a spatial approach. In order to do this, it draws on the existing literature, highlighting the differences in treatment depending on the approach, and also stressing the weaknesses. Overall, it is believed that the spatial dimension exacerbates the contradictions that arise from the implementation of sustainable development, in particular the contradictions that are likely to appear between a logic of sustainability and a logic of competitiveness. The paper concludes by examining the question of governance.