Reconfiguration of urban communities in a transitional era: Residential stratification in the contemporary metropolitan area of Shanghai (China)

The research is focused upon the process and status of contemporary residential stratification in Shanghai during the local transition from an authoritarian to a market system and the global capitalist transformation towards postfordism and its concurrent neo-liberal policy. The research was prompted by concern as to whether social justice has been served during the city's recent and unprecedented social and spatial reconfiguration. In the theoretical dimension, upon the critical review of the bifurcating positions of the functional versus conflict theories, the research disclosed that both the classic and the contemporary urban social theories were pulled either to the extreme of liberal formulations or to the extreme of socialist formulations. When placed within the urban policy agenda, these two opposing outlooks reinforce the conflict between the interventionist and liberal views regarding social justice in the city. The examination of social justice must be empirically specific and sensitive to contextual changes, and both the substance language and time-space language should be applied. In the empirical dimension, the residential stratification in Shanghai has been examined along two basic lines of socio-economic disparity and access to scarce urban resources. The research first describes the specific institutional context and the new urban landscape in Shanghai under the ideological shift from value rationality to purposeful rationality, and then proceeds to identify the historical prototypes of city space. Three key phases of city space evolution---the city during the imperial era, the city of concessions and the city of work units---have been outlined. Finally, the modes of metropolitan social geographical transformation and access to physical urban facilities in contemporary Shanghai have been illustrated. The analysis outcomes disclose that residential space in Shanghai is stratifying but still retains a sound status. Residential stratification in Shanghai during the transitional era occurred along the historical pattern and is largely symbolic. The municipal government has played a positive role to damp the tendency towards further stratification. Growth and justice can be well combined to achieve a positive result, which contradicts both the extreme liberal and the extreme socialist discourse.