Achieving Social Sustainability in Public–Private Partnership Elderly Care Projects: A Chinese Case Study

Social sustainability is crucial in Public–Private Partnership (PPP) elderly care projects, as it ensures that the private sector prioritises improving stakeholders’ quality of life alongside profit generation. This study explores how to structure PPP projects to effectively achieve social sustainability. The research adopts a prescriptive theorising approach, using predefined social sustainability goals as a basis for exploring their achievement process. A single case study was conducted on an elderly care PPP project in China. The case analysis confirms that achieving social sustainability is vital for PPPs, requiring sustainable processes to guarantee the delivery of sustainable services. This research contributes to understanding how social sustainability can be achieved in PPP elderly care projects, with a particular focus on the achievement process. By focusing on elderly care, the study demonstrates how PPPs can be structured to deliver high-quality care services and proposes a structured method for analysing and achieving social sustainability by integrating prescriptive theorising with backcasting. Additionally, the research findings assist both the public and private sectors in refining policies, strengthening governance, and enhancing the long-term sustainability of elderly care PPPs.