Market-driven: how to make the kids happy,
Social-driven: what is good for the kids' future.
If you were a parent (or not a parent), you would know making a child happy and teaching the child what is good for them in the long run are both important. What is considered the most important is to keep the child happy while growing in a healthy manner - this is the definition of sustainable development: meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Market-driven vs. Social-driven = "Pop music" vs. "Classic music". Pop music is time-specific, while classical music is timeless. A market-driven community studies what is current, and then react what people need right now as quickly as possible, therefore these communities tend to be proven profitable in a short period of time. A social-driven consideration weighs more about the underlying factors that will make a community prosper for the longer term. These strategies may not make a community take off financially instantaneously, but is more likely to standout for its long life cycle. Jane Jacobs and Kevin Lynche's works are both from half a century ago and are still considered classic literature today. This is because their advanced ways of thinking were driven by social concerns.
Market-driven vs. Social-driven = "fish" vs. "to fish". To give a man a fish or teach him how to fish? Similar to the music analogy, by giving fish, we rescue people from immediate starvation, while teach them how to fish is to pass on a life skill. More to it is that, by learning how to fish, we learn to ask "why" and "how", which train critical thinking. By being socially concerned about people, we ask what works for people, and why? And how to make it better? If we are simply market-driven, we can simply repeat the trend, or copy a "formula" that has worked somewhere else. For example, the cities in China are historically built organically over a long period of time, guided by Feng-shui and other rituals and philosophical beliefs as well as human usage. However, what can be seen in many newly built towns or sections of older cities, the fine-grained urban texture are being destroyed, replaced with automobile oriented and strictly zoned urban lands, which can be largely seen (but slowly abandoned) in the North America. The driving force to this revolutionary change of city image and urban lifestyle is market-driven: the Chinese people want to live a western life-style, which gives them a sense. Maybe this is over simplified, but this is a big part of the story. My personal concern for this example is we need to ask "why" and "how" before we make drastic changes. If we do, we need to think long term what is good for the people and community.
Market-driven vs. Social-driven = "Objective" vs. "Subjective". When an expert is looking at the market, they then to think in terms of numbers, or return on investments. A market study is more like studying other people's story. On the contrary, social driven is for ourselves to relate: if we were to choose a community, how do we want to make the decision for ourselves and our children and grandchildren? The social thinking is actually very personable, culturally concerned and intuitive.
From each point or analogy here, there is not one option, which is better than the other one. I think both market-thinking and socially-thinking are important for us to embrace, if we are truly passionate about making successful communities for people and want to bring sustainable growth to these communities.
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