A Study On Shanghai Urban Residential Spatial Structure During Institutional Change

Residential spatial structure of cities has long been a research focus of urban geography. Under the background of social and economic transition as well as globalization, great and rapid changes have occurred in the urban space of China. The mechanism of urban spatial structure evolvement is also in the process of rapid changing. In the present institutional framework of China, institution has become a major factor sculpturing the urban space. Based on a summarization on general mechanism of residential space and institution, this thesis uses factor analysis, cluster analysis and principal analysis as well as GIS mapping technology to discuss the spatial forms, the social spaces and the impacts of institutional components on Shanghai residential space during 3 different institutional eras:before the liberation, era of command-based economy, and era of transition. Further, this thesis makes a summarization on residential spatial structure changes of CEE (Central and East Europe) countries and highlights the institutional roots of residential spatial problems in the hope of bringing enlightenment to China. Finally, this thesis proposes the countermeasures to solve the problems existed in present residential spatial structure of Chinese cities.Following the line of general mechanism summarization-development process of Shanghai residential spatial structure-institutional root-comparison analysis of China and abroad, this thesis can be divided into four parts.The first part includes chapter 1 and chapter 2. Based on a literature review on present research, this thesis starts with a definition on residential spatial structure of cities, putting forward that dual mechanisms exist during the evolvement of residential structure, i.e. a top-down mechanism and a bottom-up mechanism. The present institutional framework of China, however, enables the top-down mechanism to have much stronger influences on the development of urban spatial structure.The second part includes chapter 3 and chapter 4. This part makes a summarization on Shanghai's residential spatial structure development during 3 different institutional eras. During command-oriented economy, the characteristics of Shanghai residential spatial structure can be expressed as:compact spatial forms; industrial expansion is the basic motive of residential space changes; the urban planning principle of "minimizing the distance of working and living" enables "danwei" to become the cellular or residential space; the standard "workers'building" forms the main physical landscape; residential space is relatively homogeneous and the living conditions are commonly very low. Since the open-up policy, the overall feature of residential space can been expressed as:(1) residential space is expanded very quickly; (2) in the whole the concentric urban form is still evident; (3) luxury communities are mostly clustered in the downtown and the east-west axle; (4) the medium-price and low-price communities are mostly located in the northern edge; (5) the residential density decreases from the center to the periphery like camel back; (6) overall, the feature of "mixed in general while congregation in small areas" is evident. It's articulated that the process of Shanghai residential spatial structure changes is also the process of luxury community embedded into the old residential communities during urban downtown regeneration. It's also the process of new residential community filled in the peripheries and the process of luxury community formed during urban expansion.The third part includes chapter 5. To understand the main motive driving the residential space evolvement, this part makes a principal analysis, the result of which shows that land policy is the most important driving force, and the next is economic factors, population growth, urban management polices. Though the main threads of urban regeneration and urban expansion, this part makes an explanation on the impacts of the institutional policies on residential spatial structure changes of Shanghai. It's put forward that the concept of urban entrepreneurism and the policies derived from such a concept are the main factor driving the urban spatial change. In Shanghai, the urban entrepreneurism can be seen:(1) to enhance economic development, the local government overdraws the development of the real estate industry; (2) to increase the governmental income, the local government relies heavily on selling urban lands. (3) reshaping urban image is taken as a main method to attract foreign capital. Those policies'impacts on residential spatial structure are:the establishment of development zones and business districts guide the direction of residential structure and lead to the location of new residential communities. The government also plans and builds international communities surrounding the development zones to attract foreign capital. Those policies results in a series of residential problems including social problems caused by the up surging housing price, residential gentrification as well as it's expellant effects on the low-and-medium income families; social injustice brought by residential dislocation, commercialization and resident emigration from the central area.The fourth part includes chapter 6. In this part, the residential spatial structure changes of CEE countries are then summarized and a comparison study is conducted with China. It's concluded that the unique feature of institutional change in China is: the social environment of "strong government and weak society" enlarges the administrative power; the local government reserves the main power during gradual institutional change; the gradual reform of land institution enables the creation of a coalition between local government and the developers.Based on the above analysis, this thesis considers that the countermeasure to solve the residential problems to change from government to governance. The exact measures include:to clarify the governmental function, to introduce property tax to alleviate the reliance on land income; to set up housing security system; to stimulate the negotiation role of non-governmental organizations; to enhance the rational return of urban planning.