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Invisible tenants in urban village redevelopment: Case studies from Shenzhen Megacity, China

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: China's urban development is undergoing a critical transition from expansion to redevelopment. Justice is an important issue during urban redevelopment, particularly for millions of tenants in informal settlements megacities. Using critical political ecology we investigated tenants' "rights to the city" through fieldwork, interviews, and observation in two urban village renewal projects in Shenzhen. The tenant's rights to the city has some consideration, but a "government-developer-land owner (villager)" growth coalition was more dominant during the redevelopment of urban villages. The redevelopment process caused injustices and reduced the resilience of urban village communities. The tenants lost access to affordable accommodation, small businesses, job opportunities, and public goods and facilities, while the minority growth coalition captured the economic, political, and environmental benefits of the urban village revival projects. It is critical to protect tenants' rights in the revival of informal settlements, to insure a more inclusive and fair redevelopment process.

Source: Journal of Political Ecology

DOI: 10.2458/jpe.6172

Authors: Chunhong Sheng, Ke Song, Jinlong Liu

Institutions: Shanghai International Studies University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Renmin University of China

Language: English

Topic: Urban Planning and Governance

Subfield: Urban Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Sustainable cities and communities, Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: diamond

OpenAlex ID: W4409246166

FWCI: 2.03

Cites:

Cited by: 1

Related to: 10