Socio-spatial restructuring in Shanghai: Sorting out where you live by affordability and social status

This paper investigates the dramatic shift in Shanghai's socio-spatial landscapes in the postreform China. Supported by the recent population census, one percent sample survey, and other socioeconomic statistics, this paper posits that a socioeconomically segregated metropolis has emerged in Shanghai: It is an individual's social status and the affordability of certain areas that determines where one can live. As such, a highly segregated socio-spatial structure has emerged in Shanghai driven not only by global forces, but also by developers and the state, as well as the associated institutional change. The findings of this paper calls for the Shanghai municipal government to review its property-led redevelopment approach, and regulate its policies for suburban industrialization and central city gentrification. This aims to diminish the social damage inherent in an increasingly segregated city.