The Reconstruction of Residential Enclaves in China – Social Relations in Residential Communities in Shanghai

Residential enclave was a non-issue in the socialist era. Most residential development then was built and managed by the work unit (danwei). The extreme cases of such enclave were self contained small cities in which the economic, social, political and cultural activities of residents were organized by and around a single work unit (danwei). At the same time, the housing reform has also created a new sector commodity housing for the middle class. Many of such commodity housing projects are constructed in the form of gated communities and have created new residential enclaves which are becoming more exclusive, both socially and spatially. Yet it is unclear whether the upsurge, and the social manifestation of such enclosed neighbourhoods can be understood by the conception of gated community which basically derived from the experience in Western countries. The paper will explore the development of residential enclaves in China with Shanghai as a case study. Based on a survey which covers over 1500 residents in 48 neigbhourhoods, it was found that most neighbhourhoods that were surveyed were enclosed but not gated. However, findings in the survey also contradict with what were found in similar research in the West in the perception of physical safety and sense of community in urban China. Hence, gated community, in the context of a rapidly urbanizing city in transitional economies, may command a very different meaning in China. This paper attempts to makes sense of the development of gated communities in Shanghai and shed light on the cultural as well as local implications of enclave urbanism in urban China