This research aims to explore how the government manages informal property rights in a Chinese context.  With a case study in an urban village in Shenzhen City, this paper first illustrates the diverse nature of informal property rights arrangement . Then it analyses how local governments applies flexible strategies towards informality.

In the past 40 years, China has experienced a rapid urbanisation process. Since 2014, to cope with problems such as the lack of land, the government of China has proposed a series of guidelines to promote the inventory mode of urban regeneration and avoid large-scale demolished and construction. Then the concept of micro regeneration has been proposed, aiming at protecting the historical culture and natural ecology and promoting the harmonious development, which is suitable for the regeneration of traditional urban villages. In the context of the new trend, many scholars started to consider participatory planning as the approach for micro regeneration, and some have done experimental practices in the metropolis of China since 2016, and Guangzhou is one of these cities. However, there is a lack of studies to reflect on these practices. To answer 'what effects does participatory planning bring and what factors influence them? ', the thesis summarised four advantages of participatory planning, including exchanging knowledge and mutual learning, increasing the support of the planning process, enhancing the sense of ownership and improving civic capacity, as well as two critiques which are the high cost and the power problem through literature review. Then it comparatively analysed two traditional urban villages which have adopted participatory planning in their micro-regeneration. The results show that participatory planning does have these four advantages. The thesis also found six factors influence the effects, including the participation methods, the trust in organisers, the correspondence between the participation experience and the expectation, the bias of public perception toward the regeneration process, the residents concerning for the collective interest and the support of the government. These results can be applied to a broader public participation field and have practical significance.