Green infrastructure, native gentrification, and socialist property regimes in Shenzhen, China

Abstract

Urban villages have been essential for rapid growth of the megacity Shenzhen, home of millions of migrant workers and built by native villagers. Recent initiatives of redeveloping the urban villages emphasize green infrastructure, which is often associated with the downside of gentrification. In Shenzhen, shareholding cooperatives of native villagers play a significant role in those developments, against the background of varying property arrangements across urban communities. The article compares two neighboring communities, one without a shareholding cooperative and dominant state-ownership of land and one with remaining land-use rights of native villagers that are managed by a shareholding cooperative. The paper identifies the distinct pattern of native gentrification that is manifest in the arrangements of green infrastructure and the changes in the settlement structures. Native gentrification is mediated by the ritual spaces of the original village communities.