Balance of Dual Empowerments: An Analysis on Connotations of Community Design

doi:10. 3969/j. issn. 1000-0232. 2024. 02. 003

Abstract

Abstract: In 2012, China embarked on a new stage of community governance, leading to an increasing focus on practices and studies of community design within the architectural and planning field. Based on the community governance policy, community design gives higher attention to public participation. There are diversified terminologies of community design concepts in China. However, the connotation of the community design concept in China is not yet clear. It is limited to physical space design due to the late development. Public participation often focuses more on form rather than content. Empowerment is the core challenge against effective public participation. Therefore, it is essential to understand community design from an empowerment perspective in order to achieve effective public participation. The professional concept of community design originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1960s. It includes a systematic conceptual framework and a unified understanding of empowerment. Moreover, the community design concept was introduced into the Chinese academic community in the 1980s. The content and keywords of 512 English research articles about community design from 16 databases including ASCE, De Gruyter, EBSCO, Elsevier ScienceDirect, JSTOR, Kluwer, OUP, PQD, Project MUSE, ProQuest, SAGE, Scopus, Springer Link, Taylor &amp, Francis, Web of Science and Wiley were analyzed. The origins and evolutionary process of empowerment in practice and concepts of community design in the UK and USA were summarized by content analysis method from the "empowering-enabling" perspective. The origin of the concept and practice of community design was first traced. It indicated that community design is a form of social action, which discloses the action mode that empowers the subjects involved in community design and puts forward problems about early practices. The stage characteristics and evolutionary dynamics of empowerment goals, empowerment orientations and empowerment levels were then elucidated through action mode, action content, and action mechanism of community design, respectively. The evolution of the community design action mode in the 1970s shifted the empowerment goal from empowering subjects to technological enabling. The evolution of community design action content in the 1980s changed the empowerment orientation from a tangible result to an active process. The evolution of community design since the 1990s brought a change in empowerment layer from low to high. Moreover, origins and evolutions in connotations and extensions of the community design concept were analyzed from the perspective of terminologies and definitions. The inclusive nature of empowerment and its dual dimensions in community design actions were then disclosed. Finally, challenges of China's community design and the cognitive framework for community design in China were established while considering empowerment goals, empowerment orientation and empowerment level. Besides, the community design connotations of dual empowerment balance were proposed as: balance between subjective empowerment and technological enablement, balance between the decision-making process and design outcome, and balance of collaborative relationships among multi-stakeholder. It offers a cognitive method to assimilate diverse local perspectives on community design and consolidates these perspectives into a cognitive framework. Furthermore, it offers some theoretical knowledge on China's community design researches and practices to understand effective public participation while considering empowerment and enabling.

Key words: community design, empowerment subject, technology enabling, cognitive framework, connotative evolution

摘要： 在社区治理政策下，社区设计逐渐强调公众参与的重要性。但由于我国社区设计起步晚，其概念及内涵不清晰，且多局限在物理空间设计层面，公众参与往往形式大于内容。赋权是实现有效公众参与的核心问题，因此从赋权视角认识社区设计是实现有效公众参与的重要前提。社区设计概念于1960年代起源于英美两国，于1980年代被引入我国学界。运用内容分析法，对16个外文数据库中512篇社区设计相关英文文献进行研究。以“赋权-赋能”为视角，梳理了英美社区设计实践及概念中赋权的缘起与演进过程，从社区设计的行动方式、行动内容和行动机制三方面分别揭示了赋权目标、赋权导向和赋权层次的阶段特征和演进动力。结合国内社区设计的困境，建构了国内语境下社区设计赋权的认知框架，提出了双重赋权平衡的社区设计内涵，以期对我国社区设计实现有效公众参与的赋权路径有所启示。

关键词: 社区设计, 主体赋权, 技术赋能, 认知框架, 内涵演进

CLC Number:

WANG Rui, XU Lei, ZHANG Ziqi, MENG Jingting. Balance of Dual Empowerments: An Analysis on Connotations of Community Design [J]. South Architecture, 2024, 0(2): 20-30.

王瑞, 徐雷, 张子琪, 孟静亭. 双重赋权的平衡：社区设计内涵的解析[J]. 南方建筑, 2024, 0(2): 20-30.

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