A Study on the Structural Gaps Between Official Participation Narratives and Residents’ Participation Perceptions in the Micro-Renewal of Public Spaces in Old Residential Communities

With the transition of urban renewal in China from large-scale redevelopment to micro-renewal of existing built-up areas, public participation has become an increasingly institutionalized component in the renewal of public spaces in old residential communities. However, how institutionalized participation translates into residents’ lived participation experiences remains insufficiently understood, resulting in persistent discrepancies between official participation narratives and residents’ participation perceptions. This study adopts an exploratory cross-case analysis based on preliminary site observations, unstructured interviews, and official narrative materials from six micro-renewal projects in Shanghai to examine how public participation operates in practice. The findings identify three recurring types of structural gaps: information gaps, procedural gaps, and meaning gaps. These gaps emerge from mismatches in information transmission, limited visibility of participatory processes, and differences in how participation is interpreted and experienced by residents. The results suggest that participation effectiveness is not determined solely by the presence of formal procedures, but is shaped by the interaction of communication practices, institutional implementation, professional translation, and trust relationships. By conceptualizing these discrepancies as structurally recurrent gaps, this study provides a mechanism-oriented explanation of the divergence between institutionalized participation and lived experiences. It advances existing public participation research by shifting the focus from procedural arrangements to experiential processes, and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of participation–design interaction in micro-renewal contexts. The findings also offer practical implications for improving participation mechanisms and design communication.