Being Residents Of New City: The Process Of Shaping Identity

At present, most of China's local governments pay more attention to the construction of New City/Town in suburban areas with the development of city planning.In Shanghai, the government has formulated the policy concerning the construction of New City/Town by the Spatial Structure Change of Land Use in suburbs. Songjiang New City is just the result of the development of city planning.This paper selects Jiangzhong Community which was first established in Songjiang New City and focuses on the residents first living in this community. The identity theory is chosen to analyze their process of being residents of Songjiang New City.The residents in Jiangzhong Community have a special experience. That is, the value of their community becomes higher and higher with the fully development of Songjiang New City.The research reveals that although they are given the meaning of residents of Songjiang New City, these residents present the maladjusted identity of their roles, dilemmatic identity of their relationship among groups in the community because of their original status and lack of collective actions. The three categories that were created under the identity of residents show that the process of shaping identity for residents of Songjiang New City can't be realized.