Socio-spatial differentiation and residential inequalities in Shanghai: A case study of three neighbourhoods

Urban space in China has been subjected to a tremendous transformation after 20 years of market-oriented reform. With ongoing housing reform and a massive increase in housing construction, residential spaces in urban China are changing from largely mixed work-unit compounds towards differentiated neighbourhoods. Drawing upon a survey of three neighbourhoods in Shanghai, this paper examines the impact of new residents on different neighbourhoods. It argues that residential differentiation is constituted by 'sorting' stratified residents, regrouped according to their socio-economic status, towards differentiated neighbourhoods: in the central areas, neighbourhoods are being transformed into gentrified upper residential quarters, with the remainder turning into deteriorating workers' villages; meanwhile, the suburbs are becoming increasingly heterogeneous. Increased residential inequalities are found among these neighbourhoods.