Micro-regeneration in Shanghai and the public-isation of space

Abstract

Representative of many developed cities in China, Shanghai is entering a new urban regeneration phase as the city adopts a more humanist approach to improve the quality of urban life. Micro-regeneration emerges in this context as a light method to tackle the spatial and social problems of the declining inner city through interventions on residual spaces in and around residential neighbourhoods. The present research approaches micro-regeneration through the lens of public space and publicness and seeks to explain how micro-regeneration represents the public-isation of community space and serves Shanghai's people-oriented urban regeneration agenda. By looking into the prototypical ‘Walking in Shanghai’ Community Public Space Micro-regeneration Scheme as the primary case study, the paper argues that micro-regeneration publicises community space in three interconnected ways, which are the public-isation of the design and planning processes, public-isation through eventification, and public-isation by cultivating civic consensus. These different public-isation mechanisms not only reflect the multi-layered nature of publicness but also manifest different ways micro-regeneration goes beyond local spatial transformation and contributes to Shanghai's people-oriented urban regeneration vision materially and symbolically.