Making Continuing Economic Growth Socially Sustainable: Social Assessment in China
Susanna Price, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University
Leaders may face conflicting imperatives, to promote economic growth whilst maintaining their legitimacy in the face of social costs arising from that growth. If that legitimacy is challenged by people’s increasing recognition of the social costs of economic growth strategies, leaders may consider ways to address social disparities and to provide the social safety nets or measures that will render economic growth more politically palatable. Their choices may then seek to balance international economic ideologies with formulations on social development. In so doing, through the manner in which problems are articulated and strategies framed, they may open up new insight into the official perceptions of social realities. China’s transition from a centrally planned state to a socialist market economy — especially the deliberate shift in which the Chinese leadership has selectively transformed the state and its processes to support the market and to align more closely with international standards — presents a rich background against which to assess recent initiatives for planning investment projects. Investment projects represent a very tangible manifestation of economic development, constituting a very visible — and frequently contentious — arena for transformation. Recent moves to develop social assessment present new opportunities for understanding the emerging interface between international standards and field-based realities. This allows us to reflect on the role for practitioners of social assessments in China, who are introducing new perspectives in the conceptualization of dynamic social change — perspectives that may, in turn, present challenges and opportunities for the framing of development strategies.
