Urban enclosure, neighbourhood commons, and community participation willingness: Evidence from Shanghai, China

Abstract

While the neighbourhood has been recognised as the basic unit for civic engagement and social cohesion, debates have emerged regarding the social and political implications of the territorial enclosure of urban neighbourhoods. In post-reform China, the tradition of urban enclosure has persisted, but its potential effects on community participation have not been fully studied. Using a household survey collected across different types of inner-city neighbourhoods in Shanghai, this study examines how enclosed neighbourhood commons provide physical, social, and institutional sources for residents’ community participation. The findings show that neighbourhood commons play an important role in increasing residents’ willingness to participate in collective decision-making and action-taking. However, the mechanism differs in some ways from both the common-ownership-based private governance and the bottom-up commoning actions. Instead, territorial enclosure of urban commons is a state strategy for effective urban governance. The case of Shanghai, therefore, offers an understanding of community participation in gated communities beyond common property rights and illustrates the importance of a context-dependent analysis of the multidimensional relationships between neighbourhood commons and participation.