published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Geography and Geology / Master / Master of Philosophy

This study, with its research question ‘To what extent is housing mix related to social sustainable development of new towns and what is the influence of housing mix on social sustainability in new towns?’ sets out to develop a critical understanding of and examine the relevance and desirability of incorporating customary housing mix practice in developing Hong Kong new towns to social sustainability through providing a detailed account of relationships between social mix concept and social sustainability concept as well as the influence of housing mix to new town development in social sustainability aspect. Both qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches were taken, including a questionnaire survey in a cluster sampling survey approach and a semi-structured interview, to collect data from 100 local public housing residents each at two study areas, Shatin and Tin Shui Wai, which were selected based on the assumption that one has better social sustainable development derived from a balanced housing mix, while one has lower level of social sustainability due to an imbalanced housing mix respectively. Data tabulation and content analysis were used to analyze data collected. Findings and analysis of this study suggest that the assumption of social interpersonal process brought by social mix in the same community is questionable and even not justifiable in the context of two study areas. From this perspective, there is no expectation that social mix would contribute to middle class role modeling and individual upward mobility. The interrelationship of level of mixing and the anticipated social outcomes of social mix in both towns are argued to be impractical. Thus, it further argues that social mix, in the context of both towns, does not promote social sustainability of new towns, from the fact that social cohesion is a vital aspect of social sustainability. Arising from these findings, implications are also drawn from the study that planners may have a relative weak role to plan for social development and the uncritically adoption of housing mix may shrink the production of public housings in future new town developments in view of a current huge public demand in Hong Kong. Although there are limitations in the research design and study scope and a tentative conclusion can only be reached with a selected angle of observation in this study, a more comprehensive and detailed exploration on interrelationship between social mix and sustainable development in new towns can be carried out in future is still recommended. It also proposes that forced heterogeneity should not be uncritically adopted by planners, who can study other planning tools to enhance other aspects of social sustainability of a new town. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Urban Studies / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts