With rapid urbanization since the 1990s, many Chinese historic cities have
faced the dual challenges of regenerating dilapidated historic inner urban areas
and promoting local economic development. Rampant urban redevelopmentoriented
planning and practices have been undertaken in many places. While
bringing enormous economic returns, this trend also poses many threats to the
character of the historic cities.
Literature on urban regeneration shows that local communities should play
an active role in regenerating a place in addition to other key actors such as the
government and the private sectors. Local communities also play a critical role in
conserving the indigenous lives of historic residential districts. Social capital
enables local communities to act together to pursue shared objectives in the
community-based regeneration processes. Based on this theoretical premise, the
study seeks to examine the role of social capital in the regeneration of Chinese
historic cities.
This thesis aims to provide a historical and contextual understanding of the
evolution of urban regeneration in Chinese historic cities. The thesis also explores
the role of social capital in the current controversies surrounding urban
regeneration in transitional China. In the current mode of urban regeneration
governance in China, local governments often play a dominant role as both
redevelopment advocates and project managers. Private developers are actively
involved while local indigenous residents are often excluded from the
regeneration processes. Urban regeneration practices in Chinese historic cities are
often conducted through urban conservation-cum-redevelopment strategies to spur
local economic growth and improve the physical environment. Since the focus is
on the conservation of the physical environment, many local indigenous lives
have to be excluded and relocated to give way to local redevelopment projects.
The lack of community involvement in local regeneration processes severely
undermines the goals of comprehensive urban regeneration and integrated urban
conservation plans.
Xi’an, a typical Chinese historic city, has been chosen as the study site.
Two solid local case studies have produced the following major findings. In the
Drum Tower Muslim District, traditional Muslim lives and businesses have
sustained a vibrant local economy. Together with cohesive community
relationships, this thesis argues that the historic Muslim district can actually
sustain a self-regeneration process, given proper maintenance of the dilapidated
urban infrastructures by local governments. The question is an institutionalized
mechanism to facilitate this kind of regeneration. The implementation of the
government-led regeneration projects within the Sanxuejie Historic District,
where community relationships are weak with low level of social capital, was
more “efficient”. However, it also means that regeneration efforts were less
comprehensive and indigenous lives of the original neighborhoods were not
conserved.
To achieve the goals of comprehensive urban regeneration in historic cities,
this thesis maintains the following: (1) the conservation of indigenous lives and
local socio-cultural elements is important for local regeneration plans; (2) a strong
social capital contributes to the conservation of local indigenous lives by
facilitating community involvement in local urban regeneration processes; and (3)
an institutionalized community participatory mode of urban governance is
essential for a comprehensive regeneration plan at the local level. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:HKU/oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/174363 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Zhai, Binqing., 翟斌庆. |
| Contributors | Ng, MK |
| Publisher | The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) |
| Source Sets | Hong Kong University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | PG_Thesis |
| Source | http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B47306701 |
| Rights | The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works., Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License |
| Relation | HKU Theses Online (HKUTO) |
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