Social Cohesion under Diverse Housing Environments in Songjiang New Town, China

Sea Eun Cho¹, Saehoon Kim^2*

1. ¹PhD student, Interdisciplinary Program in Landscape Architecture, Seoul National University;
2. ²Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Seoul National University

Published in The Fourth NZAAR International Event Series on Natural and Built Environment, Cities, Sustainability and Advanced Engineering, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 27 January 2018, pages 136 to 140. New Zealand Academy of Applied Research. ISSN 2463-5979 (online), 2463-5960 (print). Indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection, Conference Proceedings Citation Index (Clarivate).

Abstract

Social cohesion is a pertinent issue especially in China where the restructuring of the urban landscape has influenced the social make-up of urban communities. This study investigated neighborly interaction as a form of social cohesion in Songjiang New Town, Shanghai, and used the negative binomial regression to analyze which factors influence neighborly interaction. The results confirmed previous literature regarding a number of individual determinants but more importantly revealed that while hukou was significant in establishing weak social ties, it was not influential in maintaining strong social relations. Nevertheless, the study argued that the institutional limitations arising from hukou status might be an imposed condition of low social contact among non-Shanghai hukou holders. Furthermore, the study revealed that relocation and commodity mixed developments were a factor of low social cohesion, contending for improved planning and design measures which mitigate for the dislocation experienced by relocates.

Keywords: urban diversity; social cohesion; social network; migrants; relocation housing

Rights

Copyright © New Zealand Academy of Applied Research Ltd 2018. All rights reserved. Reproduced in the GDI Academy archive from the original proceedings without change to the authors’ text.