Gentrification and Its Variegated Emplacements: The Politics of Microregeneration in Shenzhen, China

Abstract

This article illuminates the variegated possibilities arising from gentrification by analyzing it through the lens of emplacement. It asks how gentrification can be operationalized and managed in ways that intersect with but also supersede conventional modalities of gentrification-induced displacement, including opportunities for discordant spaces and peoples to articulate meaningful relationships with the city. Analyzing the microregeneration of Nantou Village, an urban village in Shenzhen, China, I show how state-sanctioned attempts to achieve sociospatial integration between village and city ultimately co-opt village and urban residents to coproduce gentrification-induced displacement but also provide an institutional platform for the articulation of alternative collective and individual forms of emplacement. Read from an emplacement perspective, microregeneration appears to be a half-victory. It provides some residents an opportunity to grow symbiotically with the gentrifying city and represents a conjunctural moment in Shenzhen and China’s evolving approach to urban redevelopment. An emplacement perspective complicates the picture of perpetrators and victims in the process of urban redevelopment, contributing to a more pragmatic approach to researching and theorizing gentrification in urban geography.