Ecological civilisation for China’s urban sustainability. A review of normative criteria.

In the last decade, the concept of ecological civilisation (shengtai wenming, 生态文明) has become common currency in China’s debate on sustainable urbanization. Conceptually, ecological civilisation calls for a renewed harmony between human and nature and for the embracement of a new development model, one that does not entail the disruption of the natural environment in favour of economic growth. However, the extent to which ecological civilisation can reshape the norms of urban development is still debated upon. In order to shed light on this issue, we conducted a systematic review of 24 assessment systems inspired by ecological civilisation. The review shows a novel emphasis on the social dimension of sustainability, whereby ‘soft’ themes informed by humans’ relations with their living environment complement traditional categories of social sustainability−welfare, education, labour. Assessment systems inspired by ecological civilization also appear to reflect a stronger nexus between knowledge and policy, by focusing on issues such as environmental and ecological awareness, and public participation. The adoption of ecological civilisation does therefore appear to be consistent with the establishment of a more comprehensive notion of urban sustainability. The extent to which such norms will be translated into practice will depend upon wider institutional and political processes governing China’s urban development and therefore needs to be further ascertained.