Hou, JeffreyPeng, Bo2025-01-232025-01-232024Peng_washington_0250E_27724.pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/1773/52731Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2024Urban regeneration in China has increasingly emphasized civic engagement and collaborative governance under the national framework of “social governance.” As a result, micro-regeneration has emerged as a prominent approach that not only engages diverse actors in the urban regeneration process but also provides platforms for the public to take an active role in governing their urban environments. This approach also offers resilient responses to the constantly changing urban conditions, as actors enhance their skills and capacities through engagement in micro-regeneration projects. However, existing theories and practices of civic engagement in China remain predominantly government-led and spatially oriented, often overlooking decentralized social processes. Understanding the shift towards involving professional intermediate actors as the key drivers of the programs, particularly how these actors mobilize other stakeholders can provide some insights into improving civic engagement practices as well as social resilience in various contexts.This dissertation research examines three micro-regeneration programs in Guangzhou and Shanghai, China - Everyday Spaces by People, Blooming Dongming, and Beautiful Xinhua. In each case study, the assigned professional intermediate actors have successfully engaged various actors to advance these micro-regeneration programs through design proposals and spatial interventions. Furthermore, they have encouraged the involved actors to produce spontaneous initiatives to address emergent issues. This research explores an overarching question: How do intermediate actors enroll and mobilize diverse actors through collaborative activities in micro-regeneration programs, and how does such process foster conditions conducive to social resilience? Informed by Actor Network Theory and its translation process, this research developed a framework to understand the roles of intermediate actors and how they assembled and reassembled the actor networks for their micro-regeneration programs. Through interviews, field observations, and other written materials, this dissertation argues that these professional intermediate actors served as agents, convenors, and catalysts in the micro-regeneration programs. During the processes of assembling and reassembling the actor networks, the collaborative activities facilitated by intermediate actors have enhanced the involved actors’ capacities to engage, learn, and connect. These capacities allow actors to contribute to the current micro-regeneration programs, and potentially address other urban challenges in the future. By examining the processes for (re)assembling the actor networks, this model of involving intermediate actors to enroll and mobilize diverse actors beyond governmental agencies provides insight into how civic engagement can promote social resilience through capacity-building.application/pdfen-USCC BY-NC-NDCivic EngagementMicro-regenerationSocial ResilienceUrban GovernanceLandscape architectureBuilt environmentThesis