Abstract
Many purpose-built sustainable neighborhoods worldwide do not end up reporting their performance due to uncertainties surrounding the usefulness of the current mainstream accreditation systems. Many professionals question the value of the indicators used in such accreditation systems and the extent to which they can be taken at their face value as an indication of a successful sustainable community. This paper asks how the expectations and use values of the professionals and residents involved in developing, designing, managing, and living in a sustainable neighborhood can shape indicators that affect progress towards project goals. The paper looks at The Sustainable City (TSC), a newly developed sustainable neighborhood in Dubai UAE. In-depth go-along interviews were used with different actors in TSC such as the residents, developers, designers and various professionals involved in the development and management of the community. The interview transcripts were coded and used to develop an actor indicator matrix map, positioning preferred evaluation indicators with different actor groups. Since different actors base their evaluation of such projects on their own use values and interests. The research findings indicate that different actors can agree on the importance of a specific indicator but still be driven by different motives. More importantly, the fieldwork revealed that global sustainability metrics might be dismissing many indicators that are vital in local contexts. The paper provides a simple and clear path that any community can undertake to better understand the different use-values of diverse local actors and establish its own indicator system.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Evaluation, Use-values, Actors, Indicators, Sustainability, Neighborhood, Globalism
