The blind spots of in-situ upgrading: Rethinking social infrastructure

In-situ upgrading has become a preferred strategy for improving informal settlements worldwide, yet its focus on physical infrastructure often obscures the social infrastructures that sustain everyday life. This study examines how communal spaces—alleyways, rooftops, and other informally produced environments—function as urban commons and how they become vulnerable during upgrading processes. Drawing on Schlager and Ostrom’s bundles-of-rights framework, document analysis, field observations, and 105 interviews, the research traces changes in access, use, management, and ownership of communal spaces during a comprehensive in-situ upgrading project in Nantou, Shenzhen. The findings show that social infrastructure in informal settlements is constituted through shared routines, tacit norms, and collective practices rather than formal design, making it particularly susceptible to enclosure when upgrading prioritizes aesthetic, commercial, or heritage objectives. The study identifies governance displacement as a mechanism through which upgrading reconfigures rights and responsibilities, producing non-physical forms of dispossession even without relocation. By conceptualising social infrastructure as urban commons, the paper advances a framework for recognizing and protecting these often-invisible systems. The findings offer transferable insights for upgrading practices globally, highlighting the need for governance-sensitive, participatory approaches that safeguard the social foundations of community life.