A liveable community model for sustainable development: a case study of five neighbourhood watch areas in Malaysia

As Malaysia strides towards becoming a developed nation, the quality of life has become a critical focus, with liveability emerging as a key component in shaping future community aspirations. However, liveability remains subjective and socially constructed, leading to varying interpretations and standards across nations. In Malaysia, while there has been significant progress in the concept of liveability, it remains nascent, ambiguous, and evolving. The criteria of what constitutes the liveability model remain less understood, forcing this research to fill the gap. Against this backdrop, this research addresses three interrelated questions: (i) What are the key policies, strategies, and directions implemented by Malaysia for a liveable community? (ii) What are the main indicators influencing the formation of liveable communities in Malaysia?; and (iii) What solutions can be proposed to enhance the development of liveable communities in line with sustainability? Adopting a mixed-method approach, this study employed a questionnaire survey of 414 participants, complemented by seven in-depth interviews. To ensure regional representativeness and thus strengthen the reliability of the findings, multiple case studies: five of the neighborhood watch areas through purposive sampling were selected from the eastern, northern, central, southern, and Borneo (East Malaysia) regions. The findings reveal that Malaysia’s liveability is underpinned by three core pillars: social prosperity, economic growth, and environmental stability, further broken down into 12 key indicators. These indicators form a standardized measurement framework, ultimately transforming into a liveability model tailored to Malaysian communities. This study offers dual contributions: (i) it refines, enhances, and expands the body of knowledge on community theory and perspectives, culminating in the development of a liveability model for Malaysia; and (ii) it deepens our understanding of liveability indexes, providing sharper insights and improving current readings of these metrics.