Urban Village Redevelopment for an Envisioned Global City: The Multi-scalar Narratives and Actions in Jiuxing, Shanghai

Urban redevelopment in China has been the subject of heightened attention in urban governance research. Using the Jiuxing redevelopment in Shanghai as the case study, this study engages with the discursive construction of multiple actors under China’s pro-growth regime. The findings of this study include that (1) the municipal government-envisioned global city is the overarching discourse leading to the synergistic narratives of the coalition; (2) the actors created parallel narratives of the meaning of redevelopment based on their scalar positions; (3) through flexible narrative tactics, the capacity of a state-led multi-scalar coalition is enhanced for coordinating actions.