Space sharing, territoriality, and situational environments in Shanghai's high-rise gated developments

The exponential growth of gated developments in many major Chinese cities has spawned a profound and far-reaching transformation of China's urban spaces. Incorporating real physical barriers, defensive technologies, and security personnel, these residential compounds often contain various interior and exterior shared spaces that mediate the private homes and the public urban space. In Shanghai, with the fast spread of high-rise gated residential developments, shared spaces secured behind walls and gates are intensely proliferating. This dissertation examines the everyday use and environmental meanings of shared space found in the high-rise gated developments in Shanghai, focusing on a set of territoriality-related environmental meanings such as spatial control, spatial rights, imagination of home, and senses of responsibility and care-taking. Particular attention is paid to how people derive territorial senses and attitudes and how physical space contributes to these particular environmental understandings about shared spaces.;The beginning chapter of this dissertation sets the stage of investigation and identifies the research subject. It illustrates the basic spatial characteristics of shared spaces in Shanghai's high-rise gated developments.;Chapter Two continues to introduce theoretical and methodological considerations. It justifies the adoption of grounded theory and case studies as methodological strategies. In this chapter, an overarching conceptual framework is established by synthesizing existing knowledge on territoriality and environmental cognition.;Chapter Three describes the data collection scheme and introduces its deployment in the field research from January to July of 2010. It explains the conceptual "cases" and "settings" to bundle different sets of empirical indicators.;Chapter Four presents my data analysis scheme and preliminary data analysis outcomes.;Chapter Five and Chapter Six respond to the first research question by displaying and summarizing the relevant data analysis findings. In general, the research participants reported complex patterns of territorial and quasi-territorial meanings with regard to shared spaces. Chapter Five describes patterns of territorial meanings in terms of "perceived spatial control" of shared spaces and "perceived spatial rights" about shared spaces. Chapter Six presents two major quasi-territorial meanings, "imagined home ranges" and "care-taking attitudes".;As the keystone of this dissertation, Chapter Seven addresses the second research question and proposes a multi-modal emergent theory explaining residents' territorial and quasi-territorial understandings of shared spaces. In this chapter, I practice case-oriented analysis to identify three case families manifesting different patterns of links between territoriality-related meanings and their contributing factors.;Chapter Eight continues to explore the relevance of the physical space to territorial and quasi-territorial meanings of shared spaces. It first clarifies the concept of "physical space" and explains its conceptual relationship with "situational environment". Then it discusses the role of physical space in terms of their embeddedness in various person-environment situations.;The final chapter summarizes the major research findings. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).