The Effects of Residents’ Sense of Place on Their Willingness to Support Urban Renewal: A Case Study of Century-Old East Street Renewal Project in Shaoguan, China

Abstract

With the improvement of urbanization in China, urban renewal has become the main way to meet the increasing demand of residents for urban space and facilities. In this context, this study takes “sense of place” as the theoretical starting point, takes Shaoguan Century-old East Street as the case, and constructs a relationship model between local residents’ sense of place and their willingness to support urban business district reconstruction from a multiscale perspective. By introducing community concern as a mediating variable, this study uses a structural equation model to analyze the influence of residents’ sense of place, including place attachment and place identity, on their intention to support commercial district reconstruction. The results show that residents’ sense of place is significantly different on the scales of block, community, and urban area, and the difference is only in place attachment, not in place identity. Second, the enhancement of residents’ sense of place can not only directly strengthen their willingness to support the renovation of commercial areas, but indirectly improve their willingness to support the renovation of urban commercial areas by enhancing their attention to the community. The conclusion of this study is of great significance to promote the regeneration of historical and cultural blocks and the process of urban renewal.