An analysis of residents’ social profiles influencing their participation in community micro-regeneration projects in China: a case study of Yongtai community, Guangzhou

Urban regeneration has become one of the most effective ways to develop urban areas that have declined. Compared with other types of urban regeneration, community micro-regeneration is characterised by scattered stakeholders. Existing studies on public participation in community micro-regeneration mainly focus on revealing the interaction between different stakeholders with less attention to the main users’ social profiles in their participation process. This paper explores residents’ social profiles influencing their participation in community micro-regeneration projects in China. An evaluation framework for residents’ participation in community micro-regeneration projects is designed through literature research, the Delphi technique, and an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) based on the case study of Yongtai community, Guangzhou. Relative residents’ social profiles with the data from the questionnaire and literature research are further verified by stepwise linear regression. The results show that residents’ participation is still in the stage of tokenism with high-level passive information receipt but low-level enthusiasm for interactive activities. The older (i.e., 65-years of age and above) and middle-income groups (i.e., between 3000 and 14,999 CNY/Month) are positively associated with their participation in the Yongtai community micro-regeneration project. These findings can provide references for managers to distribute social resources.