Staging the thousand-park city: pocket park mania, socioecological fix, and contested eco-dreams in Liaoning, China

Source abstract

In response to growing concerns over environmental sustainability and urban livability, China has launched a nationwide pocket park initiative, transforming underutilized urban spaces into small green areas. This article examines the rapid proliferation of pocket parks in Liaoning Province, with a particular focus on Shenyang and Dalian, two major cities where construction has proceeded with unusual intensity. While the initiative is officially framed as a means to enhance public space, promote ecological conservation, and revitalize declining neighborhoods, this article shows that its implementation often serves performative and political ends. Drawing on the concept of the socioecological fix, the article demonstrates how micro-scale greening operates as a visible yet temporary response to intertwined crises. Although some parks have improved neighborhood environments and public life, the broader initiative reflects the logic of performative governance, producing spectacles of care and progress without achieving substantive ecological transformation. The article thus shows how environmental politics, performative governance, and urban spectacle converge in ordinary urban space, revealing how China’s ecological civilization agenda is materially enacted and symbolically staged through everyday landscapes.