Urban Scarcities: A Look at Shanghai - SCIBE

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URBAN SCARCITIES
availability of ‘more’, thus transforming them into a society of dutiful
consumers; it has meant the transition from services and goods available to
all urban residents, at least in theory, to services and goods available only to
those who can afford them. On the example of a neighbourhood of Shanghai,
in this paper, I will look at the ways in which residents conceive of,
appropriate, handle, and adapt to scarcity in the context of the city.
Figure 1:
The case study
area.
Emerging Scarcities
The splintered study neighbourhood (see Figure 1), located north of Suzhou
Creek (which served during the last century as the ‘dumping ground’ for
industrial facilities along its banks) in Shanghai, was inhabited by a diverse
mix of people. Urban newcomers—the members of an emerging urban
middle-class—resides in the brand-new, gated, and evidently affluent highrise
compounds that took the place of most of a huge shantytown, or