Emerging Challenges of Community Empowerment: Exploring a Harmonious Living among Different Community Stakeholders

Abstract

Contemporary lifestyles are changing due to influences of globalization, urbanization, and financial crisis. While cities are increasingly crowded and continuously expanding, many rural areas face a crisis of labor shortage and changes of land types, blurring the boundaries between urban and rural areas. Under this background, the scope of community empowerment has been expanded to a larger scale, from one certain community to the whole urban-rural integration to deal with urban problems caused by rural-urban migration. The interviewee, Jui-mao Huang, shared his views on identity, public participation, roles of designers, etc. basing on his 20- year experience of community empowerment. He pointed out that over time, designers’ focus has shifted from creating spaces to meet dwellers’ demands to affecting dwellers’ lifestyles with practices of community empowerment, and to realizing a harmonious living for different community stakeholders.

Keywords

Community Empowerment / Public Participation / Life Style / Urban Consciousness / Identity

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Higher Education Press