Exploring the impacts of participation in regeneration : evidence from communal space regeneration projects in three types of neighbourhoods in Shanghai

Abstract

Against the background of urbanization, many efforts have been paid to large-scale urban renewal in China’s local context, such as property-led redevelopment and gentrification. Very few studies explore China’s emerging small-scale neighbourhood regeneration, which advocates resident participation to make know the interests of the community. The Micro Communal Space Regeneration Projects (MCSRPs) in Shanghai provides an important emblematic case to investigate participation in small-scale neighbourhood regeneration. Generally, scholars found that the impacts of China’s urban regeneration often caused the breakdown of traditional social bonds and changed neighbourhood cohesion because of demolition residential properties and relocation of residents. This thesis contributes to this scholarship by elucidating the impacts of resident participation in MCSRPs on community building, especially the longer-term impacts on residents’ collective action. This research aims to investigate whether resident participation in MCSRPs contributes to social participation in neighbourhoods and facilitate future collective actions in three types of neighbourhoods in Shanghai, i.e. Lilong, work-unit compound, and commodity estate. Three research questions are developed accordingly: (1) what factors affected the extent of resident participation in regeneration in the three types of neighbourhoods in Shanghai (2) To what extent could resident participation enhance neighbourly relations in Shanghai’s three major types of neighbourhoods? And (3) what are the impacts of participation in regeneration on general social participation in neighbourhoods, and to what extent could long-term impacts of participation in regeneration establish positive conditions for collective action in future? This thesis essentially is a qualitative study, but collected both quantitative and qualitative data to provide a more comprehensive and deeper understanding, including questionnaire survey, interviews, desktop research, and site observations. 360 questionnaires are designed to collect residents’ socio-economic characteristics, and information on neighbourly relations and social participation for the purpose of evaluating how neighbourly relations affect social participation. Three cases of different neighbourhood types were selected to provide empirical and explanation to facilitate a fuller understanding of the subject matter. In-depth interviews were conducted with 53 residents and 22 key stakeholders to collect more depth evidence for the investigation. Investigating factors that affected participation in regeneration, the first analytical chapter (Chapter 5) demonstrates that institutional factors were more important than resident motives in explaining the differences of participation in regeneration in three neighbourhood types. Political support played a vital role in achieving effective participation in dilapidated neighbourhoods, whereas effective participation in regeneration highly relied on incentive structures in commodity estates. The second analytical chapter (Chapter 6) examines the relationship between participation in regeneration and neighbourly relations. It argues that the collaboration among residents in the regenerating process positively contributes to the enhancement of neighbourly relations in all three types of neighbourhoods, but physical improvements of communal space could only enhance neighbourly relations in dilapidated neighbourhoods. The third analytical chapter (Chapter 7) presents the findings on the impacts of participation in regeneration on social participation and collective action in long terms. It argues that there are positive correlations between neighbourly relations and social participation in the three neighbourhood samples. It also argues that long-term benefits (i.e. negotiation skills, organization skills and positive mechanisms among neighbourhood organizations) are conditions for engendering future collective action/activities. Overall, this thesis argues that the impacts of resident participation in regeneration are not only found in infrastructure provision, but also in the enhancement of social participation and the establishment of positive conditions for future collective action. The impacts have practical implications for the future policy on resident participation in regeneration projects, across all neighbourhood types in contemporary China’s urban contexts.