Urban Farm DB
Research catalogue
Database research record2023·China (Shanghai)

Cultivating an Alternative Subjectivity Beyond Neoliberalism: Community Gardens in Urban China

Xin Mai, Yueli Xu, Yungang Liu

Annals of the American Association of Geographers

Urban Farm DB summary

This study investigated the emergence and development of two flagship community garden cases in Shanghai, China, initiated in 2016. Observations revealed that a nonprofit organization, not local citizens or municipal government, proactively advanced community garden production and participation. The community garden phenomenon was found to reify an alternative subjectivity, emphasizing social organizations as a state "flanking mechanism" for extraeconomic urban governance objectives.