The Space Practice Of Operators And The Reconstruction Of Social Space

In the context of the prevailing and reflection of the demolition construction urban development led by power-capital, which has acted as the mainstream model in the past30years, Tianzifang as a urban renewal case which has taken into account the urban fabric, creative industries, the interests of the residents and social justice, is valued for urban research. To answer the research question " how Tianzifang was made", this qualitative research use the methods---lke participant observation, depth interviews and text material analysis---to make a deep description.As a production of space created by many different actors together, the real mechanisms of the Tianzifang renewal cannot be explained by the existing theories, such as institutionalist analysis, political economy analysis and social action theory. Therefore, the dissertation chooses action analysis. Tianzifang is a new production of space initiated by some social elites but sponsored by local government, it was ultimately retained under the thread of a government-led real estate project. Neither the structuralist action analysis or the constructrilist one could be proper for the case. In order to explain the micro case of urban renewal, I try to apply Giddens’and Boudreau’s theories of practice which connecting the factors of agent and structure into urban research.Expect the importance of the actors, the spatial factor also plays a key role in the case, with the concept of space both thematic and analytical. Consequently, the paper critically reviews the spatial analysis of Giddens and Boudreau in their theories of practice. And then the paper tries to introduce the socio-spatial perspective into their theories to construct a new framework named "actor analysis from socio-spatial perspective", which use social space as factor to connect "agency" and "structure". Through this framework, the research question turns from "how Tianzifang was made?" into "how Tianzifang was produced by the spatial practices by the actors with their social position?" and "how the new social space effected the actors and the original social structure?" This narrative research uses time sequence, chooses the presence of the key actors as important time node, selects the spatial practices of these actors as the unit of analysis, chooses the capacity and social relationships of the actors as the analytical factors of agent and structure, and separates different historical stages on basis of the relationship of power and interests among actors. The research tries to understand the logic the spatial practice and social structure, also explain the dynamic evolution mechanism of social process from the socio-spatial perspective.The paper concludes:1) the paper provides a case of urban renewal to the theory of practice, and adjusts the existing theory for urban studies nowadays; through putting spatial analysis into the theory of social practice,"space" is not only a objective of research, but also an important dimension of social analysis; the framework of "actor analysis from socio-spatial perspective" expands the existing theories and is adapted in the case study, and be proved to have application value to explain current Chinese society.2) urban space has become an important means of production, in the context of the analysis of spatial practices of the actors not only shows the social process of social interactions, but also reveals the social structure behind the phenomenon. Through the case of Tianzifang, some Chinese instritutions and mechanisms are drawn out. The narrative study of Tianzifang is also a critical reflection of current system.3) Terms of the prevailing development pattern, the success of Tianzifang should be turned into an institutional practice.