Apologies for cross-posting. This is the final call for papers for the RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2024 session: Governing and planning for the long-term social legacy of mega urban projects

Defined as costly large scale urban development schemes with substantive impacts on the economy, society and environment, mega urban projects have been a salient feature of cities for many decades (Fainstein, 2008). So far, there seems to be an consensus that the social impacts are largely negative, causing disruptions, gentrification and displacement since mega projects are overly focused on capital accumulation at the cost of local residents (Shin, 2012; Swyngedouw et al., 2002). Such studies have been integral in uncovering the many inequalities of large scale urban projects. However, we believe that further investigations into the social legacy of mega projects are needed in order to account for the experiences of residents who have been ‘left behind’ in areas undergoing redevelopment (Wang, 2020) and the lives of residents after their resettlement (Beier, 2023; Leitner et al., 2022; Meth et al., 2022; Wang, 2022; Williams et al., 2022) as well as new incoming residents. For instance, is it possible to rebuild the livelihoods and sense of community of resettled residents? How has remaining in-situ in areas undergoing redevelopment affected the lives of ‘left-behind’ residents? Furthermore, recent studies suggest that not all mega projects are driven by logics of growth machine and accumulation by dispossession but also by strategic, political and social objectives (Robinson et al., 2020; Wang and Wu, 2019; Wu, 2018). The resulting outcomes are therefore also highly variegated as resettled residents report of improved livelihoods through generous compensations in the form of housing or cash compensation but also lamenting of reduced mobility and loss of income due to poor public transportation and lack of local employment chances (Jiang et al., 2018; Meth et al., 2022; Williams et al., 2022). In light of these findings, we wonder then: Could different development motives and governance configurations result in different social outcomes and possibilities? Can urban planning help to ensure that residents can benefit rather than lose out from mega projects? Answering these questions will be important in uncovering the variegated outcomes of mega urban projects and crucially in averting or at least reducing their negative impacts.

This session invites papers that challenge, renew, extend or replace existing analyses and conceptualisations of the social impacts of mega urban projects. Topics include but are not limited to the following aspects:

Please send your title, abstract of 200 words and your full contact details to Zheng Wang ([log in to unmask]) and Mengran Xu ([log in to unmask]). The deadline for the submission is 25^th February 2024. Authors will be notified on the 27^th February.

Beier R, 2023, “Displaced but happy? Making sense of shantytown dwellers’ divergent views and experiences of resettlement in Casablanca” City 0(0) 1–19

Fainstein S S, 2008, “Mega-projects in New York, London and Amsterdam” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 32(4) 768–785

Jiang Y, Waley P, Gonzalez S, 2018, “‘Nice apartments, no jobs’: How former villagers experienced displacement and resettlement in the western suburbs of Shanghai” Urban Studies 55(14) 3202–3217

Leitner H, Sheppard E, Colven E, 2022, “Market-Induced Displacement and Its Afterlives: Lived Experiences of Loss and Resilience” Annals of the American Association of Geographers 112(3) 753–762

Meth P, Belihu M, Buthelezi S, Masikane F, 2022, “Not entirely displacement: conceptualizing relocation in Ethiopia and South Africa as ‘disruptive re-placement’” Urban Geography 0(0) 1–26

Robinson J, Harrison P, Shen J, Wu F, 2020, “Financing urban development, three business models: Johannesburg, Shanghai and London” Progress in Planning 100513

Shin H B, 2012, “Unequal cities of spectacle and mega-events in China” City 16(6) 728–744

Swyngedouw E, Moulaert F, Rodriguez A, 2002, “Neoliberal Urbanization in Europe: Large–Scale Urban Development Projects and the New Urban Policy” Antipode34(3) 542–577

Wang Z, 2020, “Beyond displacement – exploring the variegated social impacts of urban redevelopment” Urban Geography 41(5) 703–712

Wang Z, 2022, “Life after resettlement in urban China: State-led community building as a reterritorialization strategy” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 46(3) 424–440

Wang Z, Wu F, 2019, “In-Situ Marginalisation: Social Impact of Chinese Mega-Projects” Antipode51(5) 1640–1663

Williams G, Charlton S, Coelho K, Mahadevia D, Meth P, 2022, “(Im)mobility at the margins: low-income households’ experiences of peripheral resettlement in India and South Africa” Housing Studies 37(6) 910–931

Wu F, 2018, “Planning centrality, market instruments: Governing Chinese urban transformation under state entrepreneurialism” Urban Studies 55(7) 1383–1399

All the best,

Zheng

Dr Zheng Wang (he/him)

Department of Geography

King’s College London

Associate Editor: Transactions in Planning and Urban Research

Recent publications

Theorising with urban China: Methodological and tactical experiments for a more global urban studies, Dialogues in Human Geography (Open Access)

Planning centrality, state-oriented growth, and the spatial evolution of development zones in urban China: The case of Wuhan’s Optics Valley, Transactions in Planning and Urban Research

Can residents regain their community relations after resettlement? Insights from Shanghai. Urban Studies

Life after resettlement in urban China: State-led community building as a reterritorialization strategy. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (free copy here)