Regenerating Historic Neighbourhoods
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Regenerating Historic Neighbourhoods: Everyday Life, Participation and Resistance in Shaping Urban Governance Networks A Case Study of Nanjing, China By Liu Cao Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Geography and Planning Cardiff University 2019 Acknowledgements Writing the acknowledgements reminds me of those happy and sweet times I have owned during my whole PhD life. Three years ago, I stepped into Cardiff University as someone who was unclear and anxious about what my future research life was going to be. I was very nervous and upset at the beginning when settling down in a new city, without any people I knew and worried about what I should do for my research. After three years’ time in Cardiff, I finally made it through, I found there were so many people to thank for their substantial input encouragement, help and support. I want to first give my gratitude to my two splendid supervisors. I want to thank Prof. Mark Jayne and Dr. Andrew Flynn, for their help, encouragement and patience. I want to thank Mark for always cheering my up and giving me clear directions for what I should do for my research. I am so lucky to have a supervisor like you, who is always supportive about every decision I made. Mark is like my friend and also teaches me how to be a good researcher. I also want to thank Mark for accepting me as your student. It is such a big honour to be your student and be supervised by you. I want to thank Andrew, for your priceless suggestions and every time detailed feedback for my writing. The most memorable experience was when I was so frustrated and upset during my fieldwork, you made a Skype call to cheer me up and recommended someone in China to help me get through it. During the past three years, I feel so lucky to be supervised by both of you. Your critiques and suggestions will always be beneficial to my whole life. I also want to thank my reviewer Prof. Gary Bridge. Every year the mini viva I have is the precious time I can have to talk with you and get your feedback. I am always very excited and looking forward to your comments every year, which gave me a i lot of confidence to keep going. Especially your suggestions of the gentrification part, which gave me a lot of inspiration. I want to thank those people who gave me great support when I did my fieldwork. I want to thank Prof. Wang Hongyang and Prof. Yao Xin at Nanjing University for their support and help with my fieldwork in Nanjing. Your suggestions for doing research in China, and comments on my research gave me a lot of confidence to overcome the difficulties I had when I did my fieldwork. I want to thank Ms Chen Shaolin, Mr Tao Le, Mr Guan Weihua and Mr Li Jianbo at Nanjing Urban Planning Bureau. Thank you for your kind help for sharing me with relevant policies and documents. I want to thank my friend Ms Zhao Yiqing at the Polytechnic University of Milan in Italy. I first met you at the workshop in Naples, but I did not realise that you would be my best research partner at that time. We have a similar background, research interests and directions, every time I talk with you about my research I always get a lot of new ideas. I want to thank you for making voice calls to me and listening to my complaints, giving me comfort and also encouraging me to do the research. I would not be able to do my fieldwork in Nanjing without your company. It was such a hard time when I was delivering my fieldwork in Nanjing, but it was because of your company and your support that made my fieldwork can be easily go through. Thanks for your kind help for discussing and analysing my research. I want to thank Kieran O’Mahony, Neil Turnbull, Edith England, Lydnsey Stoodley, Hannah Browne-Gott, Daniela De Fex Wolf and other ‘basement dwellers’ for being my officemates. My English would not be able to improve so fast without your help. I have had such nice time with you all, not only in the office, but also every time I have with you all in the pub. Thank ii you all for celebrating the Chinese New Year for me, as a foreigner in Cardiff I got the warmest feeling from you all. I want to thank Rebecca Windemer for your support through my PhD life. You are always a good example to push me to go forward. It was such a happy time with you in Groningen and Bristol. I would never be able to explore so many interesting and exciting things of the UK without your invitation and suggestions. Thanks Lucy Baker for your company at the conference in New Orleans and your advice on my research. I also want to thank Lyndsey for sharing my happiness and sadness. I really enjoyed the concert I went to with you. Thank people at Martin Schroder’s group in University of Manchester for always giving me research and career development advice, especially Dr. Kang Xinchen for your help. In the end, I want to give my deepest gratitude to my parents. My father Mr. Cao Zhengdong and my mother Ms Chen Yan give me selfless love and support to pursue study in the UK. It would be impossible for me to study in a foreign country without your love and support. I will keep working hard and make you both feel proud of me. Thanks Zhang Xinran as the important person in my life to always care for me, support me and tolerate my bad temper. Additional special thanks to Neil, Edith and Lyndsey for proofreading my thesis. iii Abstract There has been a growing political, policy and popular interest towards urban regeneration of historic places in China over the past decade. The recent urban regeneration practices generally mean historic places are either destroyed altogether, to be replaced by high-rise living buildings, or turned into tourist attractions or high-class shopping centres thus did not respond to the needs of local residents, maintain or sustain their everyday social and cultural practices. In light of these circumstances, protests emerged from local residents in resisting gentrification and claiming their benefits are normal to observe within these years’ urban regeneration in China. The overall aim of this thesis is to address this phenomenon in seeking to diversify the contemporary body of research from the Global South. In doing so, this thesis works at the intersection of theoretical engagement with urban governance, public participation, gentrification and critical thinking of everyday life in cities. The main arguments of this thesis are as follows. First, the way how the local government regenerated the historic neighbourhood in Nanjing shows evident local government entrepreneurialism features. More than inter-urban competition, intra-urban competition is simultaneously happening at smaller scales. Secondly, grassroots’ mobilisation illustrates non- government actors can affect the governing processes. Thirdly, existing limitations of the current public participation system explained why it failed to empower local residents and reduce tensions. Fourthly, the strong sense of place attachment was used by local residents as the powerful weapon to resist gentrification. This thesis firmly situates the role of non- government actors in shaping and influencing governing networks. It adds new ideas in engaging with research of social relations, public participation and resistance to gentrification to the contemporary body of urban studies. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. i Abstract .................................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................... v List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... ix List of Tables ............................................................................................................................ xi 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Urban regeneration and public participation in China .................................................................................. 3 1.2 Unravelling the complexities of urban regeneration in China .................................................................... 12 1.2.1 Research objectives and questions ...................................................................................................... 16 1.2.2 Methodologies and case study framework .......................................................................................... 18 1.3 Thesis structure............................................................................................................................................ 19 1.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 22 2. Conservation, regeneration and gentrification ........................................................... 23 2.1 Theorising historic neighbourhoods ............................................................................................................ 24 2.2 Conserving historic neighbourhoods ........................................................................................................... 26 2.3 Regenerating historic neighbourhoods .......................................................................................................