Understanding community perceptions and responses to sustainable urban infrastructure projects in San Francisco Chinatown (1990–2020)

Thesis

This thesis investigates the factors that shape perceptions and responses to infrastructure projects framed as ‘sustainable’ in the post-1990s era, using San Francisco Chinatown as a case study. Focusing on the Central Subway, Ping Yuen public housing modernisation, and Sustainable Chinatown projects, it analyses how a subset of highly active residents and organisers, working within local organisations, engaged with these projects beyond the binary categories of resistance or compliance, or exclusion and inclusion, that inform analyses in the green gentrification literature.

In response to calls within critical environmental justice, this study extends macro-political economy and racialised lens by developing a conceptual framework that draws on sociological and urban studies research on ethnic enclaves and infrastructure to map the interplay between structural dynamics and community- and individual-level factors. Drawing on 21 months of fieldwork involving interviews, participant observation, and analysis of secondary sources and archival documents, the thesis examines how identities and lived experiences intersect with organisational context to shape perceptions of Chinatown as a community and place, how sustainability is framed within the projects, and how individual roles and contributions shape responses.

Findings show how perceptions of Chinatown as a home under threat inform a shared idea of Chinatown that community members mobilise to leverage post-1990s sustainability funding toward community-defined goals. The analysis underscores organisational context in strategies of community-controlled capital, situating project responses within broader efforts in community development, neighbourhood stewardship, and land use advocacy. It highlights how locally grounded framings of sustainability prioritise social and economic concerns over environmental performance, while also illustrating how the emotional and mental labour of individuals involved in these projects functions as an infrastructure of care critical to project implementation.

This research contributes to more nuanced understandings of ‘sustainability’ and ‘community’ within environmental justice and green gentrification debates, demonstrating how these concepts operate in the context of urban infrastructure development. It further contributes to ethnic studies scholarship on Chinatowns by offering a multi-layered analysis that links individual agency, organisational context, and structural conditions, providing a roadmap to understand similarly racialised urban communities navigating sustainability and climate-driven infrastructure investments.

Authors: Chan, D

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-r1djz6ork
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: sustainable infrastructure; ethnic enclaves; urban sustainability; San Francisco Chinatown; green gentrification; environmental justice
• Subjects: Community development, Urban--United States--Case studies; Sustainable development; Sociology, Urban--Case studies; Community development, Urban; City planning