The Framework of Social Sustainability for Chinese Communities: Revelation from Western Experiences

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the framework of community social sustainability for China. The paper gives a brief introduction to the concept of social sustainability and its core inclusions in literatures at the beginning. Social sustainability, nevertheless, has not only been tested in theoretical research debates, but also already been practiced and traced in western context. The key ideas and systems are summarized after reviewing and analysing social sustainability concerns in western countries like US, UK and Canada by several case studies. Furthermore, comparing the evolution of this concept in China, a literature-review based analysis also discusses how the westernoriginated social sustainability idea should be understood and redeveloped in the distinctive Chinese context. Following these findings, a new framework of social sustainable communities is summarized that includes three layers: individual needs, social network and community development. The paper finally gives some extended discussions on the current community planning system in China and related issues concerning this topic. It is also proposed that developing detailed indicators under the framework, although is insufficient at the moment, can be a systematic process integrated with the updating of community planning mechanism in future during a public-evolved social planning process, a positive attempt toward social sustainability in practice as well.