Social Sustainability of Kampung Communities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v2.n2.65Abstract
Malaysia is a tropical country and has rich tradition of vernacular architecture. Traditional vernacular houses (Kampung Houses) are proved to be environmentally sustainable, and the neighborhoods containing these houses traditionally showed the potential to build up community bonding inside the neighborhood, and hence social sustainable. But the future of this social sustainability might be in danger. Malaysia is currently rapidly urbanizing, and now 72 percent people live in urban areas. These urban areas are often very close to the Kampungs, and local people often move to urban houses. The urban housings lack the traditional pattern of community bonding. With every respect to the environmental sustainability of Kampung houses, and recognizing the rich tradition of social sustainability of Kampung neighborhoods as a whole, the question is whether Kampung communities will remain socially sustainable in future. This study took an ethnographic method, and interviewed existing Kampung dwellers of three different generations for their view on why people should or should not live in Kampungs in future. After qualitative analysis, several interesting findings evolved through grounded theories, and the study tried to suggest strategies on how to bridge this increasing gap between living harmoniously both in the rural and urban setup for the future generations in Malaysia. Data showed that though all generations acknowledged the benefits of living in Kampungs, better job opportunity motivates the young generation to leave Kampungs. It concludes that Kampungs still have the power to sustain the modern society with its powerful social potentials, but needs to be nurtured with modern facilities.
References
Bijker, R. A. (2013). Migration to less popular rural areas: the characteristics, motivations and search process of migrants, University of Groningen Library].
Chambers, R. and G. Conway (1992). Sustainable rural livelihoods: practical concepts for the 21st century, Institute of Development Studies (UK).
Chiang, Y., et al. (2013). It's Not Just About the Money: Motivations for Youth Migration in Rural China.
Crow, H. (2010). Factors influencing rural migration decisions in Scotland: an analysis of the evidence, Scottish Government.
Ernawati, R., Santosa, H. R., Setijanti, P. (2014), “Community Initiatives in Developing Sustainable Settlements, Case Study Kampung in Surabaya Indonesia”, International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology, Vol. 3(6): 2242-2245.
Glesne, C. (2010), Becoming Qualitative Researchers: An Introduction”, Pearson Publishers.
Hidayat, W. (2012). Application of Malay Traditional Architecture Elements as Regional Identity towards Sustainable City. Jurnal Ruas, 9(2): pp. 1-27.
Jones, R. and M. Tonts (1995). Rural restructuring and social sustainability: some reflections on the Western Australian wheatbelt. The Australian Geographer , 26(2): 133-140.
Kammen, D. (n.d). Kampung Capacity.
Malaysia Site (2015), http://www.malaysiasite.nl/kampong.htm, Accessed on April 07, 2015.
Masron, T., et al. (2012). Population and spatial distribution of urbanisation in Peninsular Malaysia 1957-2000. Geografia: Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 8(2): 20-29.
McKenzie, S. (2004). Social sustainability: towards some definitions, Hawke Research Institute, University of South Australia.
Scoones, I. (1998). Sustainable rural livelihoods: a framework for analysis.
Smailes, P. J. (1995). The enigma of social sustainability in rural Australia. The Australian Geographer, 26(2), 140-150.
Spradley, J. (1980), Participant Observation, Publisher: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Tahir, M. M., et al. (2005). Reinventing the Traditional Malay Architecture: Creating a Socially Sustainable and Responsive Community in Malaysia through the Introduction of the Raised Floor Innovation (Part1). Energy, Environment, Ecosystems, Development and Landscape Architecture: 278-284.
Thompson, E. C. (2004). Rural villages as socially urban spaces in Malaysia. Urban Studies, 41(12), 2357-2376.
Trading Economics (2015), http://www.tradingeconomics.com/malaysia/population, Accessed on April 07, 2015.
Williams, J. D., & Sofranko, A. J. (1979). Motivations for the in-migration component of population turnaround in nonmetropolitan areas. Demography, 16(2), 239-255.
Wood, A. (2007). Sustainability: a new high‐rise vernacular? The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings 16 .
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright of articles that appear in International Journal of Built Environment and Sustainability belongs exclusively to Penerbit Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (Penerbit UTM Press). This copyright covers the rights to reproduce the article, including reprints, electronic reproductions or any other reproductions of similar nature.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- This Journal applies Creative Commons Licenses of CC-BY-NC-SA
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
