Can residents regain their community relations after resettlement? Insights from Shanghai

Abstract

This article investigates whether residents have been able to regain their sense of belonging and neighbourliness after being resettled in urban China and what factors have prevented or enabled them to do so. There is a growing body of work examining the post-resettlement community relations of residents. However, this process of community rebuilding is mostly understood as resident-led and little is known about the role and influence of state actions such as state-led community building and changing resettlement policies. Our study addresses this gap by drawing on the case of Hesha Hangcheng which is one of Shanghai’s major relocation settlements. Our findings, from analysing a household survey and interviews, show that the sense of belonging and neighbourly relations of residents are poorer compared to before they were resettled. The analysis further reveals that residents who are more satisfied with their new housing and neighbourhood tend to have better neighbourly relations and sense of belonging compared to those who are not satisfied and feel they have lost out from the resettlement. Additionally, the state’s efforts in rebuilding communities by providing more community organisations and activities have given residents a platform to encounter each other and help facilitate neighbourliness and a sense of belonging. Theoretically, our study contributes by revealing the interplay between residents and state-led community rebuilding efforts and how they have affected post-resettlement community relations.

Theorising with urban China: Methodological and tactical experiments for a more global urban studies

“…The identification of residents suffering from in-situ marginalisation helped me realise that there are social problems of urban (re)development that cannot be understood as displacement and inspired me to examine the experience of other affected resident groups who are outside the scope of displacement studies. My subsequent research project focused on residents who have already been resettled in Shanghai and discovered that they face a series of challenges, including a severe lack of public infrastructure and being socially isolated due to the remote location of their new residence in state-developed relocation settlements (Wang et al, 2022). Studying the postresettlement life of residents revealed the long and arduous process of reterritorialization where residents attempt to improve their post-resettlement environment and rebuild a sense of community under the leadership of the state (Wang, 2022).…”

Neighbourhood attachment, city attachment or beyond? Residential mobility and scales of place attachment in Shanghai, China

“…The opening‐up policy in the late 1970s and a series of subsequent market‐oriented reforms, including land reform and housing marketisation, have led to an unprecedented level of residential mobility in Chinese cities (Friedmann, 2007). On the one hand, a variety of urban redevelopment schemes (e.g., Shantytown Redevelopment Scheme) have demolished numerous old and traditional neighbourhoods in Chinese cities and resettled incumbent residents to new locations by both voluntary and involuntary means (He & Wu, 2007; Wang et al, 2022). On the other hand, the privatisation of housing properties and the termination of welfare housing allocation to work‐units' employees have mobilised enormous housing purchase activities (Su et al, 2021), transforming a society of state welfare housing tenants into a society of private homeowners (Huang, 2004; Huang & Deng, 2006).…”

Migration and migrants in Chinese cities: New trends, challenges and opportunities to theorise with urban China

“…Findings from post-resettlement studies reveal many similarities between migrants and resettled residents, such as the fact that both groups rely on existing social networks in their new destination area at first. For migrants, they rely on fellow migrants who live in the same area (Wang et al, 2017a(Wang et al, , 2017bWu and Logan, 2016) whereas for resettled residents, they often rely on fellow neighbours who were resettled into the same relocation settlement (Wang et al, 2023). For both migrants and resettled residents, they interact with neighbours as a form of mutual support (Wang, 2022;Wang et al, 2016;Wu and Logan, 2016).…”

“…In this sense, China's rural urban disparity and unequal access to public resources such as education can be observed from both rural migrants and landless farmers resettled into urban neighbourhoods. Furthermore, both groups tend to feel a lack of sense of belonging and place attachment in their new destination area (Wang et al, 2017b(Wang et al, , 2023Wu, 2012). Both rural residents and resettled rural residents are also targets of stigmatisation and discrimination (Du et al, 2018(Du et al, , 2021.…”