Urban redevelopment under market transition : a case study of Shanghai

Against the backdrop of globalisation and market transition, the policies and practices of urban redevelopment in China have experienced great transformation. The aim of this research is to explore the political economy of urban redevelopment and its impact on urban neighbourhoods. With reference to the Western theories of neo-liberalism, property-led redevelopment and the growth machine, this study develops a research framework to understand the political economic conditions and operational mechanism or urban redevelopment in China, and to explore the relationship between different players. In this study, Shanghai is treated as a laboratory to examine how national and local political economic transformation affect redevelopment approach, how property-led redevelopment works to facilitate capital accumulation and generate new urban landscapes, and what the socioeconomic outcomes are: Both qualitative methodologies, e.g. interview, questionnaire and interpretive analysis, and quantitative methodologies, e.g. statistical and GIS techniques, are applied in this research. My research has three major findings. First, in the post-reform period, selective neo-liberal policies have been adopted by the state to encourage more marketised practices in urban redevelopment. Within the moments of partial ‘destruction and creation’ of existing institutional arrangements. Shanghai’s urban redevelopment is undergoing a partial and conditional neo-liberalisation. Meanwhile, neo-liberalisation operates in a more vibrant way at local level than at central level. Second, in contrast with the US-based growth machine, the private sector does not play a dominant role in the pro-growth coalition. The state is still overseeing and modulating urban redevelopment process through policy intervention and various economy leverages. The booming property-led redevelopment in Shanghai is actually operated by the ‘state-led pro-growth coalition’. Third, since the state legitimises and encourages property-led redevelopment, which exploits exchange value at the cost of use value, urban neighbourhoods are experiencing tremendous residential displacement and functional transformation. The external institutional forces, i.e. the ‘growth coalitions’ formed by the state and developers, play a predominant role in shaping the trajectories of neighbourhood change. The neo-liberal policy and the marketised operation of urban redevelopment have brought uneven impacts on affected residents with different socioeconomic statuses. Within redevelopment, residents’ housing statuses are stratified, and the interests of low-income residents are neglected.