“All concerns me”: Collaborative governance in pre-regeneration of public rental housing in Hong Kong from the boundary-work perspective
Authorship: Weixuan Chen, Yi Izzy Jian, Esther Ng, Kar Him Mo* (*=corresponding author)
Publication Date: December 2025
Abstract: Urban decline in high-density settings has shifted policy from demolition-led redevelopment to regeneration that minimises displacement and sustains communities. In Hong Kong’s public rental housing (PRH), pre-regeneration poses distinctive governance challenges given complex institutions, constrained land and historically low tenant participation. This study examines collaborative governance in the pre-regeneration phase through a boundary-work perspective. Using the “Design Pretest” across five PRH estates, we implemented a qualitative, participatory design in separate yet linked arenas: design-thinking workshops with estate management and co-creation workshops with tenants. Interactive boards and SWOT on the management side codified tacit operational knowledge into strategic roadmaps prioritising infrastructural longevity and risk mitigation, operational efficiency and regulatory and financial compliance. Tenant-side participatory mapping, mascot creation and collage-making translated lived experience into diagnostic maps, symbolic mascots and synthesising collages foregrounding sociability, recreation and everyday comfort. Under fiscal and regulatory constraints, outcomes took the form of documented interim positions rather than settlements; typically upgrade-first choices within maintenance and budget limits, parallel tracks pairing amenities with service-based support, and limited prototyping and phasing prior to any wider roll-out. The research team and partner NGOs, acting as boundary agents, bridged community priorities and institutional requirements through safeguarded translation: preserving tenant artefacts verbatim, sequencing tenant-only sense-making and co-presenting community outputs alongside managerial roadmaps. The findings evidence coordination without consensus and procedural rather than necessarily substantive empowerment. It offers practical guidance for planners and policymakers: structure separate deliberative spaces, use creative participatory methods and engage boundary agents to maintain cultural integrity while delivering implementation-ready briefs.
Publication Journal: Land Use Policy
