Cruel optimistic community upgrades: collapsing socialisation in two Shanghainese urban villages

Abstract Beyond the primary domains of home and workplace, third places play a crucial role in fostering social cohesion within marginalised communities. In Shanghai’s urban villages, the dissolution of socialisation opportunities coincides with community demolition and profit-driven urbanisation. These villages, characterised by semi-informal settlement structures, emerged due to economic migrants who responded to metropolitan labour demands. This qualitative study examines the decline of third-place utility among migrants by analysing spatial flows, activity arrangements, exposure frequency, and interpersonal dynamics. The observed decline in communal interaction serves to inadvertently legitimise governmental urban renewal initiatives, thereby perpetuating cycles of marginalisation. Moving beyond the Chicago School’s spatial-social distance correlation, we employ Lauren Berlant’s theoretical framework of cruel optimism to examine social deterioration. The tension between declining third-place utilisation and unrealistic housing aspirations produces a cruel disintegration of migrants’ self-organisation, with the majority of migrant households acquiescing to existing planning regulations through social withdrawal.