The right to spatial development for human flourishing

This paper explores the literature on spatial development for people’s multifaceted well-being and the rights to the city, and argues for people’s right to live with dignity in cities. Nature and people-friendly spatial developments are fundamental to nourishing capabilities of human beings and realising their well-being. However, in reality, spatial developments are determined by legal planning and development regimes and socio-cultural discourses. These allocate different ‘claims, privileges and power rights’ to different stakeholders, and the results may not contribute to human flourishing. This paper attempts to synthesise an evaluation framework to achieve flourishing life with dignity in cities

‘Kainos’ urban renewal: place-based renewal for human flourishing

Gentrification is not urban renewal. Urban renewal is not just about the redevelopment of dilapidated buildings, nor simply the physical change of neighbourhoods. The epitome of the art of ‘kainos’ urban renewal is to transform a community grounded on its place-based knowledge to produce ‘planet, place and people friendly’ environmental qualities that nourish people’s multifaceted well-being. Join this Webinar if you want to learn how to carry out ‘kainos’ urban renewal that balances exchange and use values in space to produce places for human flourishing. Highlight: https://ln.edu.hk/sgs/cities-and-governance-webinar-2021-05-highlight

New development areas (NDAS) in rural Hong Kong : whose spatial justice and whose right to the city?

Book of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Definite Space – Fuzzy Responsibility, Prague, 13-16th July, 2015Justice is a prerequisite for civil order (Rasmussen, 1999). To many Hong Kongers, the return to Chinese rule since 1997 has seen the further bias of the Governments policies towards t recent controversial plan that has triggered multiple protesting acts is to bull-doze farms and nonindigenous farmers in rural New Development Areas (NDAs) to make way for housing product ultra-expensive commodity fueled by growing demand from local residents and Chinese investors. If justice means giving people what they deserve (Sandel, 2009, p.7), then the ca thought. Legally, justice is done when non-indigenous farmers who are also squatters, are cleared to make way for housing construction. Socio-economically, the move is to liberate the land value and provide homes for hundreds of thousands of urbanites. However, from a geographical equity point of view, these multi-generation farmers have played a significant role in securing local farm produces to the city. So whose right to the city should be protected: Farmers rights to their farming pr rights to be displaced? Or the claim rights of many urbanites to reasonable housing? Detailed examination of the evolution of the NDA plans reveals the importance of the right to voice out differences to prevent the complete transformation of spaces saturated with use values to exchange values. Nevertheless, the NDA plans can still be seen as a smokescreen to fatten the pockets of big developers who have accumulated huge land banks in the NDAs.Published Versio

Power and rationality: the politics of harbour reclamation in Hong Kong

Flyvbjerg argues that power often overrides rationality as power wielders frequently portray ‘rationalisation’ as rationality to define ‘truths’ that justify their actions. When power is great, rationality diminishes. In confrontation, rationality yields to power. In this paper I contest these arguments. Through differentiating the concept of power into ‘outcome power’ held by those with privileged access to authority and ‘social power’, the power of resistance vested in everyone, and by distinguishing the concept of rationality into ‘technical’, ‘strategic’ (rationalisation), and ‘value’ rationalities, I assert that, in confrontations, individuals with social power can counteract outcome power and develop their value rationality to reproblematise issues for transformative changes. A study of the reclamation debates in Hong Kong illustrates how social power has augmented value rationality, challenging the government’s outcome power and its rationalisation for further harbour reclamation, reproblematising the harbour as a unique natural heritage feature worthy of protection by law.

Spatial Planning for Smart Sustainable Development?

Most smart city literature is about the adoption of information and communication technologies to make cities smart now (Fernandez-Anez et al., 2018). While some synthesise the problems in implementing smart city initiatives (Ma & Lam, 2019), few try to trace the origin and evolution of smart sustainable cities (Kuecker & Hartley, 2020). This Interface examines the theories and practices of developing smart and sustainable spatial planning in two distinctive spatial contexts: Shenzhen, China’s “Silicon Valley,” and Greater Manchester, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution

Urban regeneration with Chinese characteristics : a case study of the Shangbu industrial district, Shenzhen, China

Shangbu Industrial District (SID) is the first industrial district in China that has successful been regenerated into a major commercial and retailing centre. First developed in the 1980s for industrial development, the SID faced the hallowing out of industries in the early 1990s as a result of rapid economic and spatial restructuring in China's regional economy. The expanding residential population, the consequent needs for retailing activities, and the encroachment of the SID by commercial activities have “gentrified” the deindustrializing District into a retailing centre. Successful regeneration of the SID can be attributed first to the failure of the early socialist market economy to anticipate consumption and retailing needs of a growing population. Another reason, ironically, is the weak enforcement of regulations on the emerging land market and land use changes at the Municipal level. The regeneration process generates interesting dynamics and conflicts among the Municipal and District Governments. primary land users, tenants and consumers. This case illustrates that while globalization, economic and spatial restructuring seem to be the universal forces in regenerating cities, the outcome is more of a function of the interplay of various socio-economic and political factors in a specific context

城市社区公共环境的使用后评价与满意度研究: ——以西安为例

Based on the theories of post-occupancy evaluation and sustainability indicators, this paper compared the different community satisfaction levels on the public environment of two Xi’an communities. The study firstly discussed the contribution of public environment to community harmony. Secondly, using sustainability indicators, the satisfaction survey of the concerned community public environment was conducted and corresponding data were analyzed. Finally, suggestions were put forth regarding the sustainable regeneration and development of community public environment in Chinese cities