Ecological Civilisation and the ‘Good life’ in Shanghai: Promises and Practices to Achieve Harmony Between Humans and Nature Through (Urban) Redevelopment

Since 2007, China has been using the concept of ecological civilisation in its national and local policies. The term describes the government’s central aim to decrease the ecological footprint without compromising on prosperity and the ‘good life’. This article explains how the directly controlled municipality of Shanghai is striving towards this aim by seeking to combine economic growth with sustainable urban planning and design efforts. This endeavour takes place in the context of extremely high population density, land scarcity, the world’s highest real estate prices, climate change, socio-economic challenges, a looming energy crisis, geopolitical tensions and unforeseen difficulties. China’s promising ecological civilisation policies demonstrate an ambition to redefine perspectives on growth and development in a radical way, though they are not without shortcomings. Despite encouraging high quality attractive greenways along Shanghai’s renewed riverbanks, gaps remain between the promises of ecological civilisation inspired policies and daily life practice. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .