Conflicts of Sustainable Development Projects in China

Sustainable development projects play an important role in the improvement of the living condition of people. This research takes eight sustainable development projects located in a medium-sized city in China as case study to investigate the conflicts of sustainable development projects with external stakeholders during construction stage. A total of 25 experts are invited for semi-structured interviews. As a result, there are 13 types of conflicts identified linking to five groups of external stakeholders of the projects. The causes and solutions of these conflicts are also generated by interview survey. Suggestions are provided for conflict prevention and resolving of identified conflicts. The research result will benefit the researchers and practitioners of sustainable development project management in the better understanding and management of project conflicts.