Our planet urgently needs strategies for assessing sustainable development. But it is not sufficient to limit radical thinking to environmental protection and resource management. It is necessary at the same time to focus on the socio-cultural symptoms of crisis which affect modern society. What is required now are holistic models of development which, within the same context, pay attention to the social, cultural and environmental issues for the contemporary global crisis. The Life Region launches a strategy for sustainable development, setting out from a socio-ecological position and developing a model for a socially and culturally supportive community, or 'Life Region'. Special emphasis is placed on the situation of the provincial and peripheral regions of Europe and the world, and introduction of self-reliant civic strategies in national and international politics. Three aspects of regional policy are looked at in detail: spatial planning, cultural policy and social development, and regional economics and regional science are also touched upon. Presenting the ideas of a number of distinguished European reserchers and debaters, The Life Region will be a major contribution to the emerging debate on social strategies for sustainable global development.