Social capital and urban regeneration in Chinese historic cities: a case study of Xi'an

Abstract

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.