Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2017

 

Urban Society: Diversity of Civilizations and Community of Shared Future

(Abstract)

 

Chen Zhong

 

Cities coexist with civilization, and urban society is an important trend in human development. A city is a spatial concentration of heterogeneous civilizations whose diversity is an important feature of urban society, one that stimulates urban innovation and development. The commonality of civilizations represents the unity of our shared ecology, society, order and systems and is a basic guarantee for the operation of urban society, a society that has both a private and, increasingly, a public character. The flexibility of civilization unites diversity and commonality; it is a state of and capacity for synthesis in terms of survival, accommodation, adaption and innovation. The flexibility of the city unites flexibility of space, flexibility of institutions, flexibility of meaning, etc. The community of destiny, the community of shared future and the community of shared freedom are major community types. The community of shared future is a regional or global spatial community of destiny, a community of interests under the pressures of a risk society, and a community of meaning in which diverse understandings and values coexist. The human community and the urban community have the same structure, and the development towards a more rational urban community of shared future is an important trend in the transformation of contemporary civilizations and cities.