Theories and concepts influencing sustainable community development: introducing the concept of community productivity

Sustainability planning, implementation, and assessment in cities: how can productivity enhance these processes?

“…Cities can achieve sustainable urbanization by promoting the right to the city and the design of naturebased urban environment without compromising collective and individual health and well-being [17,78]. Addressing 21st century issues that transcend municipal borders requires new con gurations, nonhierarchical decision-making processes, and using local knowledge as a key guiding tool [57].…”

“…Overall these indicators are geared toward the productive, regenerative, and socio-cultural aspects of the community and are designed to be used additionally to the more mainstream sustainability indicators. Holistic urban productivity indicators include for example: growing space per dwelling unit, land use mix, net-positive buildings, local innovation, positive health practices, life satisfaction, con dence in local government, and cultural access and participation [17]. Data can be collected both from common data sources, such as archival provincial, regional, and federal records, and through surveys and engagement methods that the city can conduct in collaboration with community stakeholders.…”

“…Early applications of SD and SCD were informed by weak sustainability theory that assumes inde nite economic growth with e ciencies and innovation compensating for ecological damage [4,14]. Strong sustainability, on the contrary, acknowledges the limits to growth and the need for holistic, long-term approaches to achieve resilience and well-being of socio-ecological systems (SES) [1,[15][16][17]. The literature on weak and strong sustainability re ects a decades-long debate on economic growth and whether resources should be managed with technology (weak sustainability) or by limiting demand (strong sustainability) [4].…”

“…Urban sustainability requires integrated decision-making to support a transformation from the currently dominant individualistic approach of impact reduction to the systemic logic of urban systems restoration and inclusive co-production [17]. The emerging SCD concept of holistic urban productivity can help cities address constraints and create fundamental changes in urban processes to achieve optimization and regeneration of tangible and intangible assets.…”