Community capacity building for sustainability : case studies of Guangdong China

Abstract

Academic studies tend to focus on environmental and economics aspects in achieving sustainability. This paper emphasizes the social sustainability aspect from the angle of building community capacity. Community capacity can be viewed as readiness for empowerment, a prerequisite condition for greater social equity and social justice leading to inter- and intra-generation equity. A community capacity building framework is derived from the existing literatures to guide the analysis of four communities to assess the current status of the community capacity in Guangdong by conducting interviews and survey. It is found that the community capacity is relatively low and residents are lack of proactivity in contributing to community development if they are living in a comfort neighborhood; more professional social workers are needed to support capacity building.