ANNUAL CONGRESS 2025

Micro-regeneration as Post-growth Planning Experiment: Some Observations from Shanghai

Not scheduled

20m

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul

Oral Track 01 | POSTGROWTH URBANISM

Speaker

Dr Jingyi Zhu (University of Glasgow; University College London)

Description

For more than a decade, China has been exploring new approaches to urban development and urban regeneration in a post-growth, ‘stock-based’ condition. The paradigm of ‘mass demotion and reconstruction’ has been challenged, and the dominance of large-scale flagship urban regeneration projects gradually gives way to the proliferation of new regeneration projects and mechanisms across the country. In this context, the changes to and innovations in the conventionally landuse-centred planning can offer crucial reflections regarding the potentials of new planning tools and approaches to help achieve various economic, social and cultural aspirations of urban regeneration in the new era as well as the limitations and challenges faced by these still evolving practices.

Since around 2015, the so-called micro-regeneration has been carried out in many Chinese cities. Despite differences in appearances and implementation mechanisms, early micro-regeneration projects were in essence experiments outside the statutory planning system, delivering upgrades in place quality and service provision without necessitating land use changes and new property developments. As micro-regeneration further developed, it started to interact with the formal and informal planning systems in different ways, contributing to the diversification of planning practices in response to challenges in sustainable urban development and urban governance.

Using empirical materials from Shanghai, the paper reflects on how micro-regeneration in Shanghai came to emerge and develop as an experiment to extend the capacity of conventional formal planning and how some of its key ideas and practices have been absorbed or further developed in various formal and informal planning practices. The paper in particular focuses on one of the city’s first micro-regeneration experiments, the ‘Walking in Shanghai’ community micro-regeneration initiative, and traces how practices and reflections in the ‘Walking in Shanghai’ subsequently further diversified into other forms micro-regeneration projects that followed and fed into the city’s new actions in planning such as the 15-minute Community Life Circle and the community planner system. The paper reflects on the innovative tools and approaches used in various micro-regeneration projects, especially those improving or challenging conventional pro-growth planning practices and those aligning with the goals to foster sustainable development and social justice. The paper also critically examines the challenges faced by planning in promoting positive local spatial and social changes.