State-led societal participation in urban renewal in Hong Kong

Abstract

In the process of urban renewal in old districts, gentrification has dispossessed the grassroots class of their vital living space, leading to conflicts between public power and private rights. Under post-political conditions, there emerges a trend towards consultative governance, with the relationship between the government and society becoming bidirectional and dynamic. This paper leverages Rancière's theoretical framework of police and politics to scrutinize the societal participation process in the reconstruction of Shun Ning Road in Hong Kong, revealing the essence of participation and consensus from the relationship between the state and society. The police attempted to regulate and control the power and voice of politics within the established order of reconstruction, or alternatively, to co-opt the residents' demands in a manner that was not overt, ultimately excluding residents in a subtle way. Societal participation actually became a process dominated by the state in a post-political context.