The Exploration of Spatial Strategies on Social Construction in Shenzhen

Abstract

Shenzhen is a unique city in China where 70% of people come from outside of the city. In fewer than three decades, Shenzhen has gone from a no-name town of tens of thousands to a prototypical fast-growth city of millions of people. Rapid urbanization has brought out rapid economic development; however, social development has been ignored and is lagging far away behind economic development. This paper explored the social problems of Shenzhen, such as: uneven distribution of public facilities, lack of intensive utilization of resources; lack of urban distinction, and an immature social management system. According to the social problems in Shenzhen, this paper researched successful social sustainable cases of the San Francisco Bay Area, Hong Kong and Singapore, etc., and proposed spatial development goals of social construction in Shenzhen: "Promoting the coordinated economic, cultural, social, and ecological development, and building a harmonious city so that a variety of people from everywhere can live a happy life here.” Furthermore, this paper suggested several development strategies, including "offering a variety of different spaces and services for various people," “activating stock spaces,” “focusing on the community level,” and “innovating institutional mechanisms.”This is a turning point in the planning and social field; urban planning used to only focus on space planning but has evolved into also focusing on social issues. Moreover, this paper brought in social ecology research methods and explored the establishment of social and ecological assessment systems for urban planning. For example, besides the Environmental Impact Assessment, the Social Impact Assessment of urban renewal should be also considered; this would, for example, explore how demolition reconstruction could lead to fragmentation of social networks in an area.

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Author Information
Weifeng Mao, Shenzhen Urban Planning and Land Resource Research Center, China
Fan Lan, Shenzhen Urban Planning and Land Resource Research Center, China
Yonghong Liu, Shenzhen Urban Planning and Land Resource Research Center, China
Yucheng Ye, Urban Planning Institute of Nanjing University, China

• Category: Hawaii Conference Series 2017, Hawaii Conference Series 2017 1, IICSEEHawaii2017, Oral Presentation
• Tag: Social Sustainability and Social Justice,

Posted by James Alexander Gordon

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