Resilience in Real Estate Development: Regional Normative and Place-based Uses of the concept, and Commons-Oriented Social Innovation in Tai O Village

Resilience, and “resilient communities,” emerged prominently as premises for real estate development action, planning and policy between the 1990’s and 2010’s (Brown, 2014). Accelerating climate change and disruptions to globalization economies, made resilience a bridging term for “development frameworks,” (Grove, 2018). In Hong Kong, to “Pursue resilient Urban Development and Design,” underwrote recent development initiatives in planning and governance (Sim & Wang, 2017). This paper discusses social innovation work to support a distinct community, using social innovation toolsets, related to the Commons (Firat, 2018) (Ostrom, 2018), to promote fairer development. Tai O Village, a stilt house community on Hong Kong’s periphery, is threatened, and arguably exemplary of places where the real estate development industry will test resilience as a premise against its own commercial 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). As this regional economy manifests resilience primarily within a normative development pattern (Hong Kong 2030+, 2016), Tai O’s transitional development must maintain social, cultural, and historical reserves against threats instigated within and without. This paper addresses research questions about the nature of resilience as a real estate development concept, and social innovation toolsets’ role employing resilience as a social concept. Conceptual perspectives informing the research include housing development theories from John F.C. Turner (Turner, 1972, 2017), and premises of the “Commons” contested against normative development practices (Firat, 2018) (Ostrom, 2018). The paper presents literature review of international and regional texts on resilience, data from development questionnaires and workshops, and resident responses to development proposals initiated from these data. This paper presents an enterprise structured to spread development opportunity throughout Tai O Village, and contributes to knowledge as a case study that explores Place-based development models, defines resilient communities as a conceptual and practical premise, and examines social innovation toolsets in practice.