Regional and place-based approaches to resilience in Hong Kong : nested administrative visioning and social innovation initiatives as mediator in Tai O Village

Abstract

Resilience, and “resilient communities,” emerged as premises for real estate development planning, policy making, and action between the 1990’s and 2010’s (Brown, 2014). Accelerating ecological and globalization economy disruptions made resilience a bridging term for “development frameworks,” (Grove 2018). In Hong Kong, to “Pursue resilient Urban Development and Design,” underwrote recent real estate development visioning (Sim & Wang 2017). This paper discusses action research to support a community using social innovation toolsets following select interpretations of the term “resilience.” Tai O Village, a stilt house community on Hong Kong’s periphery, is changing and exemplary of places where Hong Kong’s real estate development industry will contest resilience’s definitions as a premise, including within normative development imperatives (Lee & Tang 2016). Specifically, this centuries-old, socially resilient Community must redefine its relationship to the regional development economy, from rural fringe to tourism centre (Sustainable Lantau Blueprint 2017). This regional economy defines resilience through technical and systemic norms, within which Tai O’s future development must interdependently transform cultural resources while maintaining its form, function, and identity (Grove 2018). This paper addresses research questions about the nature of resilience as a real estate development concept, and social innovation action researchers’ role applying contested definitions of resilience. Conceptual perspectives informing the research include Kevin Grove’s monograph on the resilience premise (Grove 2018), development theories from John F.C. Turner (Turner 1972, 2017), and public administration frameworks for collaborative governance (Ostrom 1990) (Emerson et. al 2011), contested with regional resilience visioning. The authors review Hong Kong’s literature on resilience to construct a regional understanding of the term. This background frames findings from social innovation workshopping, including Village resident feedback on experimental initiatives. This paper presents action research to support a Collaborative Governance Regime for Tai O Village’s resilient transformation, under an ecological comprehension of the term, place-based approach, and progressing social innovation collaborative governance experiments.