WP/39 identity and space on the borderland between old and new in Shanghai: a case study

Abstract

China's urban geography has been dramatically altered over the past three decades. The co-presence of splinters in urban fabric—contrasting and continuously changing in terms of condition, use, and socio-cultural consistency—is symptomatic for the country's contemporary transition, suspending existing spatial and temporal disconnections particularly on the borderland in-between old and new, poor and rich, traditional and modern. Focusing on three urban groups (long-term urban residents, rural newcomers, and urban newcomers) in a district of sociospatial diversity in Shanghai, this paper examines trajectories of urban restructuring, aspects of sociospatial identification, and elements of the person-environment-relationship.