Reflections on the production of space and justice: A study of everyday life of the SuoJincun's guerrilla gardeners

Abstract

As a country that legally guarantees equal access to public space for all residents, China still faces the challenge of abstract public power impeding socio-spatial production and the realization of spatial justice. The article focuses on two case studies of community guerrilla gardening in Nanjing. It employs ethnographic research methods to analyze the green grassroots actions carried out by residents in the community and to demonstrate the differentiated representational spatial production of the residents. The results show that: gardening has an irreplaceable social acquisition value as the production of real matter, is a material carrier and bond of place attachment, and a means of shaping cultural identity. It contains the potential for creative gardening methods and is an important node of access to nature and culture for groups with limited mobility. Guerrilla gardening recycling of collective space by residents in the form of private appropriation. The discussion session analyzes the positive side of the phenomenon of resident's privatization of common public space from the perspectives of social change, the value of use of public space, and spatial justice. The concludes by moving away from the discussion of public and private space toward an everyday, use-value-driven, locally creative initiative for a new aesthetics of collective space.