Identity and Space on the Borderland between Old and New in Shanghai: A Case Study

China's urban geography has been dramatically altered over the past three decades. The co-presence of splinters in urban fabric-contrasting and continuously changing in terms of condition, use, and socio-cultural consistency-is symptomatic for theShanghai, intraurban borderland, urban restructuring, rural-to-urban migration,

Identity and Space on the Borderland between Old and New in Shanghai: A Case Study

China's urban geography has been dramatically altered over the past three decades. The co-presence of splinters in urban fabric - contrasting and continuously changing in terms of condition, use, and socio-cultural consistency - is symptomatic for the country's contemporary transition, suspending existing spatial and temporal disconnections particularly on the borderland in-between old and new, poor and rich, traditional and modern. Focusing on three urban groups (long-term urban residents, rural newcomers, and urban newcomers) in a district of sociospatial diversity in Shanghai, this paper examines trajectories of urban restructuring, aspects of sociospatial identification, and elements of the person-environment-relationship

Everyday Practices of Sanitation under Uneven Urban Development in Contemporary Shanghai

China has seen rapid economic development and urbanization, and this has included the upgrading of traditional sanitation systems. But the speed of this transition raises concerns about the coexistence of diverging sanitation practices and their impact. This paper asks how this coexistence is experienced by low-income urban residents in Shanghai. It is based on field research during four weeks in July 2013, which involved in-depth, open-ended interviews with 20 low-income urban residents. The article concludes that these diverging everyday practices are situated at the core of urban socio-spatial differentiation, inequality, exclusion and discrimination. Particularly affected are rural-to-urban migrants and ageing working-class residents, for whom the lack of access to improved sanitation may be associated with stigmatization and social isolation. Future research should examine how changing sanitation cultures under urban development and diverging sanitation practices in different contexts can affect family ties, social relations and socio-spatial integration. To view an animated video that illustrates the ideas discussed in this paper, please visit https://youtu.be/BPEU_apfoLo </jats:p

Doing fieldwork in Shanghai: Notes on visual methods and ethnographic practices

This contribution offers intimate insights on entering the field, establishing relationships with research participants and the use of visual methods to gather material. It builds on my work on the coexistence between the old and the new in Shanghai, spanning across multiple scales: from the structural forces that trigger and direct globalisation, migration and urban change to the processes of agency, which become manifest in individual perception, attitude and behaviour. The speed and scale of China’s urban transformation require not only the continuous questioning of established theories, but also the creative use of unconventional methods to capture ephemeral conditions, writes Deljana Iossifova