Power relations in affordable gated communities pre- and during COVID-19, with implications for post-pandemic Chinese cities

Abstract

Gated communities have become the prevalent residential form in Chinese cities, following China's housing reforms. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, these gated communities became the basic unit for spatial lockdowns, as they offered an effective means to ensure quarantine control and provide basic necessities to residents behind the gates, as well as allow testing and calculating COVID-19 cases. This research focuses on affordable gated communities in Gucun, Shanghai, populated by comparatively disadvantaged households who were also disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 outbreaks. Drawing on new institutionalism as a theoretical framework, we examine the formal and informal rules adopted among the actors tasked with governing these communities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper provides critical insights into how the pandemic has affected the different actors' power relations and governance practices, intensifying control and support towards these marginalised urban poor. We conclude, raising whether the state's enhanced presence, through its residents' committees, in neighbourhood governance will endure in Chinese post-pandemic cities. • COVID-19 reinforced entrenched power relations in affordable gated communities. • Formal rules legitimise the state's enhanced control over residents' personal lives. • Informal consensus among residents is crucial in guiding their compliance. • Residents' committees intensified control and support towards maginalised residents. • Urban marginalised residents navigated state constraints to meet their basic needs.

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