Exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect framework of residents' responses to urban neighborhood regeneration: The case of Shanghai, China

Abstract

Neighborhood regeneration (NR) improves the living quality and environment of urban areas through the rehabilitation or renovation of dilapidated neighborhoods. In the current Chinese context, the NR is mostly dependent on governmental planning and funding. But due to the limitation of time and resources, it is impossible for the government to propose and dominate NR in every single dilapidated neighborhood. Therefore, promoting resident-initiated NR projects is an essential strategy for improving citizens' wellbeing and meeting the requirements of sustainability. However, in the dilapidated neighborhoods, the residents' cooperation in NR is not simply relied on their discourse power. Their choices of responses may be strongly influenced by various factors. Nevertheless, there have been few studies that examined the residents' choices of responses in NR. By adopting the “exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect (EVLN)” framework, this research aims to investigate how the relevant elements, including the perceived impact of NR, social capital, neighborhood environment, and residents' dependency, can influence residents' choice of responses. Two old neighborhoods in Shanghai were selected as the case study area. The data is collected through a questionnaire survey. The principal component analysis and multiple regression techniques are utilized to unveil the mask of their intrinsic relationship. The empirical results suggest how the above elements have impacted the residents' responses to NR to a certain extent. Notably, several key findings were revealed from the results. The residents with high-level dependency, perceived high-level social capital, and strong impact of NR are more likely to choose voice response. The low-level dependency, perceived poor neighborhood quality, and low social capital lead to the residents' exit choice. And the response of loyalty/neglect is due to the perceived good living environment, low-level social capital, and the ignorance of NR impact on their lives. Finally, some policy implications were drawn to promote the residents' active and positive action in initiating NR projects in their dilapidated neighborhoods.