ABSTRACT
This chapter starts with a descriptive analysis of emerging urban living labs (ULLs) practices in China. Both smart cities experimentations and some dispersed community-based responses are observed, with the former being demonstrations of technologically focused ULL while the latter are more socially oriented. The growing grassroots activism is also fused with tacit and professional knowledge held by community leaders, the strong intention of tackling community issues and to co-create a more sustainable urban environment. The various approaches to community sustainability engagement being deployed by the Green Source represent a transformative process of not only community empowerment, but also divergent governing responses. With explicit attempts of integrating social and technological innovations to attain low carbon development in urban living, a recent plan was designed to construct a Carbon Generalised System of Preferences (Carbon GSP, or Tanpuhui) scheme.
