Community Engagement and a Movement Toward Ecological Sustainability: Case Studies in Shanghai China

Considering the question of what it requires to make welfare societies ecologically sustainable, I propose that community engagement plays an important role in the actualization of reduced carbon emission targets set at upper government levels and implemented at local levels. I explore this hypothesis through the examination of the relationship between community engagement and pro-environmental behavior. I consider the role of the community and a sense of community in developing pro-environmental behaviours that will contribute to the achievement CO₂ emission goals in urban China. Urban China has been selected because China is the global leader in CO₂ emissions, has the largest population, the majority of which is living in urban areas, and China has wealth gaps that are representative of other developing nations and becoming increasingly common in more developed countries. China is also at an economic and industrial developmental stage wherein growing populations have some financial surplus that allow for increased consumption, making China’s consumption habits and environmental behaviours important to follow as they could provide lessons for other developing and developed countries.

In order to understand the relationship between community engagement and environmental behaviours the concepts of community and sense of community are examined within case studies of waste separation and community engagement in Shanghai. Through interviews with community residents, building managers and local party officers I look at three important factors first, the implementation methods of the recycling project, second the existing levels of a sense of community and finally, community engagement behaviours. Through interview, discourse and observation analysis I assess these factors in correlation to the success or failure of the implemented project. From the results we can begin to understand the role of community engagement and the contribution it can make in the reduction of overall CO₂ emissions through the development of pro-environmental behaviours.