“Community Capacities, Social Capital, Citizen Values and Impact Assessment”: Community-Based Planning as a Missing Component in the Urban Planning System in Hong Kong?

This study will argue that the “bulldozing” approach adopted by most development projects in Hong Kong has been sustained by an ignorance of their impacts on local communities. Through detailed mapping of community capacities, social capital and values, and identification of social impacts of development projects in four communities, the research is intended to demonstrate the importance of institutionalising community-based planning to guarantee people’s right to the planning of their local communities.Urban planning in Hong Kong is basically a top-down process. Although in recent years, the government has tried to engage communities in the planning process, the top-down nature of the system remains intact. Development projects in the city are often implemented through razing established communities to make way for “growth”. Affected community members, when eligible, will receive cash compensation but the community networks, social capital, economic ties and trust that take many years to accumulate, will “dissipate” as “development” proceeds.To make visible these “invisible” capacities, social capital and values, four in-depth community studies in rural and urban Hong Kong will be carried out: two that have been impacted by development initiatives and two that are facing imminent changes. Through summoning a number of proven research tools on community development, the research will identify systematically individual and collective capacities and social capital within the community; carry out a “citizen value assessment” exercise to identify key concerns and values held by these communities; and based on these, undertake a social impact assessment exercise to evaluate the social impact of the imposed development projects on the studied communities against the identified capacities and values. The research team will carefully examine whether or not the existing planning and governance mechanisms could be transformed to address this social impact and how community-based planning can be instituted within or beyond the government to building, rather than destroying, local capacities.The research will be a unique Asian contribution to the field of community development and social impact assessment that has been dominated hitherto by Western literature. It will provide evidence on the state of social capital in densely populated Hong Kong. The research findings will challenge the local development approach that is blind to the existence of valuable community assets and provide convincing evidence for the urgent institutionalisation of community-based planning. It will also contribute to the further theorisation of alternative development that advocates for the rights of local communities in shaping urban spaces.