Place attachment in gated neighbourhoods in China: Evidence from Wenzhou

Tingting Lu,Fangzhu Zhang,Fulong Wu

doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.04.017

Tingting Lu, Fangzhu Zhang + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.04.017

Copy DOI

Abstract

China’s new residential developments have widely taken the form of privately governed gated communities since the socialist work-unit housing system was terminated towards the end of the 1990s. Although many studies have recognised these emerging gated neighbourhoods as having improved physical conditions, there has also been a decline in neighbouring and thus they have profoundly changed the traditional collectivist regime of living in China. However, there is a lack of research into whether gated neighbourhoods cultivate a positive relationship with residents and how such relationships are shaped. Based on a questionnaire survey of 1034 households conducted in a variety of gated neighbourhoods in Wenzhou, China, this paper intends to fill the gap by using neighbourhood attachment as an indicator, and by examining the impacts of private governance. The results of regression modelling suggest that residents have considerably high place attachment in gated neighbourhoods and that private governance enhances neighbourhood attachment by emphasising market provisions. Through knowing their neighbours, being involved in neighbourhood public events, and being provided with a good neighbourhood image as well as privatised services, residents develop an attachment to the neighbourhood socially, symbolically and functionally. More importantly, by comparing market-led, mixed and state-led neighbourhoods, this research identifies the attachment in gated neighbourhoods as underlining the demand for private governance rather than for safety. Such a new form of neighbourhood governance, as illustrated in urban China, is consumption-oriented and results from the privatisation of public goods and services provision at the neighbourhood level.

Highlights

China has been developing new forms of neighbourhoods as over 75 per cent of urban households have become privately owned over the last decade (Huang and Li, 2014)
Gated neighbourhoods are new residential forms that emerged in post-reform China after housing privatisation reforms
Whether gated neighbourhoods foster attachment and how neighbourhood attachment has been impacted by the emerging private governance remain unclear

Summary

Introduction

China has been developing new forms of neighbourhoods as over 75 per cent of urban households have become privately owned over the last decade (Huang and Li, 2014). Prior studies have concentrated on how migrants develop low attachment to urban villages and traditional communities (Liu et al, 2017; Wang et al, 2016), while acknowledging a comparatively higher attachment in commodity housing (Li et al, 2012; Zhu et al, 2012) Despite these findings, the mechanisms of attachment in gated neighbourhoods are not entirely understood. This research conducts quantitative analyses based on a large-scale questionnaire survey of 1034 households conducted in the city of Wenzhou from March to May in 2013 It aims to answer two research questions: (1) how residents’ socio-economic attributes and their social, functional and symbolic dimension of experiences impact attachment in gated neighbourhoods, and (2) how gated neighbourhoods with market-led, mixed and state-led governance shape neighbourhood attachment differently.

Neighbourhood attachment and private governance

Study area

Survey method and data measurement

Data analysis

Hardly know any

Differentiations of attachment by neighbourhood forms

Findings

Conclusion