**Community Building through Public Engagement: Variety in Europe and China**

by Thea Marie Valler, Marius Korsnes, Jiayan Liu, and Yulin Chen

Public participation in the regeneration of neighborhoods has increasingly become a key objective in public planning. However, the extent to which such processes are anchored in the community varies greatly. To ensure inclusive community building, one must pay close attention to the groups of actors involved in the processes. This chapter investigates different examples of community building in Europe and China, focusing on who is participating. A variety of cases show the importance of a deep-rooted process analyzed through a modified participation ladder, and classification of bottom-up and top-down initiatives. The role of formal procedures and regulations of participation are also examined, particularly with respect to China. When superficial forms of participation are utilized, the processes can run the risk of merely legitimize top-down plans. On this basis, we argue that a wide variety of actors should be involved early in the process to ensure that residents also have a say in the definition of the issues at hand, and also the methods and tools used for participation.

### **Transformative Factors of Post-Industrial Urban Spaces in China and Italy**

by Badiaa Hamama, Maria Paola Repellino, Jian Liu and Michele Bonino

Both Chinese and Italian cities have faced significant transformations in the post-industrial era, in particular the path towards more socially integrative urban spaces in the face of social, political and economic transitions. Based on a literature review and selected case studies from China and Italy, this article attempts to shed light on the processes and dynamics of the redevelopment of their urban spaces in light of the transition to a post-industrial period. A shift in the economic and political apparatus is always associated with challenges and opportunities, as well as with social and spatial impacts, which can sometimes result in irreversible damage or successful development experiences. Although using different approaches and strategies to face the different constraints in the transitional period, particularly the rising land value, what emerged from both the Chinese and the Italian experience is an alternative sensitivity towards the protection and reuse of the pre-existing industrial urban fabric, an approach mostly based on reducing the practices of demolition and total replacement, and increasing focus on the engagement of local communities as an integral part of the decision-making process. In spite of the effort to produce qualitative urban spaces oriented to balance the physical and social transformations, achieving socially integrative cities is still a challenge in both urban contexts.
