Inclusive urban regeneration approaches through small projects: A comparative study of three Japanese machizukuri cases

Small projects have recently attracted attention as a starting point for urban regeneration. However, by promoting elastic urban regeneration characteristics, their temporality and informality may cause gentrification and social exclusion. Thus, do small projects contribute to inclusive urban regeneration based on citizen-centered activities? Although Japanese machizukuri, performed to improve the quality of built and social environments, are advanced inclusive citizen-centered activities realized through self-organization processes, they have not been sufficiently positioned in the urban regeneration context. Hence, this study aimed to position Japanese machizukuri in this context and identify its inclusive processes from a resource-based perspective through a comparative study of three cases. The findings indicate that machizukuri addresses the dilemmas of temporality and institutionalization and realizes inclusive urban regeneration through small projects that self-organize the processes of exploring suitable areas and mitigating resource inequality. The study also provides a general typology of three inclusive approaches. As a planning practice and policy implication, the emergent governance model of flexible territorial and institutional features discussed in this study suggests the need to continuously coordinate the governance sizes and boundaries of areas using dynamic bottom-up citizens' agencies, beyond administrative districts and sectional organizations.