Impact of empowerment on public participation awareness in community renewal projects: mediating role of trust and community identity

ABSTRACT

As urbanization progresses in China, community renewal becomes a crucial way to achieve sustainable urban development. However, as the focus of community regeneration, the public’s passive participation and lack of awareness of participation are the biggest obstacles to the community regeneration process. Empowerment (EP) stimulates the internal drive of the public in the community by empowering the subject with power, capacity, and energy. In view of this, the objective of this study is to reveal effective ways to enhance public participation awareness (PPA) in community renewal through empowerment. Through empirical analysis of the collected 300 valid questionnaires, the results show that: empowerment, community identity (CI), and trust relationship (TR) have a positive impact on PPA in community renewal, while CI and TR play a mediating role in the process. The results of the study provide new ideas to enhance public participation awareness in community renewal projects and provide certain decision-making advice to promote urban co-construction and sharing.

KEYWORDS:

• Community renewal
• empowerment
• public participation awareness
• trust relationship
• community identity

1. Introduction

During the late 20th century, China initiated large-scale renewal and construction of urban housing and comprehensively organized community renewal reforms to accelerate the process of urbanization. Such large-scale regeneration projects have produced a great deal of emissions, strained the nearby infrastructure, and, most importantly, created inconvenience to the residents. China’s urbanization rate has increased to nearly 64% from 36.2% in 2000, with 27.8% of those buildings being newly constructed. With the development of sophisticated urban buildings, cities’ cultural legacies have been progressively disappearing, and the older generations’ legacy of the city’s culture is currently confronting great challenges that the culture cannot be carried along to the next generation. In response to the policy of sustainable urban development, the focus of urbanization has shifted from urban renewal, which concentrates on entirely new design and building, to community renewal, which concentrates on stock renewal, prioritizing functional upgrading and all facets of the lives of its constituents, including the revitalization and restoration of the city’s historic neighborhoods, the transfer of urban history and culture, and the development of a cultural environment (S. Li, Liu, and Ye 2022; Zheng et al. 2016). It avoids the problems of excessive consumption of resources, high costs, and destruction of the identity of the original community caused by overthrowing and rebuilding.

Community renewal is an urban environment transformation project that focuses on meeting residents’ needs for a better life and solving their demands (Renzaho, Richardson, and Strugnell 2012; S. Zhou and Zhang 2015). The interest groups involved are more decentralized and the subject classes are diversified, which is in essence a benign transformation of the city in the process of governance (Z.-Z. Liu et al. 2016). In this process, public participation has become an important way to improve the quality of community renewal and innovate the pattern of grassroots governance (Gustavsson and Elander 2016; Tang, Gong, and Liu 2022). At present, public participation has become an important part of China’s urban and rural planning and renewal activities (Martin, Fischer, and McMorran 2023; G. Zhao et al. 2023). In order to motivate residents to participate actively in the renewal, the governments have established corresponding measures and regulations for public participation in community renewal. Although there are some institutional safeguards and incentives for public participation channels and expressions of will the public itself is not sensitive enough to participate in community renewal construction, and the awareness of active participation in community renewal is not enough. It still stays in a passive and inert state of participation (B. Liu et al. 2018; A. Wang et al. 2016), which leads to problems such as the public being unable to effectively participate in community activities, lack of attention to long-term community management, and difficulties in follow-up maintenance and management (Lu et al. 2023). Therefore, how to improve the awareness of public participation in the process of community renewal and renovation in a targeted manner, resolve the conflicts that may arise from it, balance the interests of all parties, and promote the sustainable development of the community are all urgent problems to be solved.

Past research on increasing public participation awareness has primarily focused on government leadership, with residents being expected to passively engage in community governance through external interventions such as policies (Abas et al. 2023; Foroughi et al. 2023). This type of public participation is often symbolic in nature, lacking the stimulation of inner participation awareness (Biondi et al. 2020). Therefore, in order to improve residents’ awareness of participation, it is essential to establish a positive consensus between residents and the government, which enhances their inclination to engage at a personal level and increases their motivation to participate. Empowerment is a complementary way to achieve the formation of public participation awareness at the intrinsic element level, which motivates the public through top-down empowerment and makes residents perceive the value of their participation and create value for community renewal (Candel and Paulsson 2023; Q. Liu et al. 2023). Psychological empowerment and structural empowerment elements become the main driving factors to enhance residents’ participation perceptions, and the method of identifying public participation awareness formation from the perspective of psychological empowerment will more directly promote residents’ self-perceptions and make them increase their intrinsic willingness to participate and create value for community renewal projects. Compared with the transient motivational effect of external factors, the intrinsic motivational effect generated by psychological empowerment can sustain the public’s sense of participation (Gutierrez 2023; Monje-Amor et al. 2021). In addition, structural empowerment will complement the effect of psychological empowerment behavior from organizational structure design, work arrangement, and institutional construction to jointly promote the formation of public participation awareness (Cheng, Liu, and Zhou 2023).

This study focuses on community renewal including the renovation and maintenance of community buildings, the reuse of unused space, and the cultivation of community culture, to reveal the effective paths in which empowerment affects PPA of community renewal, thus providing countermeasures to stimulate the PPA of community renewal. Based on this, this study proposes the theoretical research hypothesis of the impact of empowerment on PPA on the basis of communicative planning theory and new public service theory, explores the impact of empowerment on PPA and the mediating role of CI and TR, and verifies the formation mechanism through empirical analysis. The research focuses on the following questions: How does empowerment break the bottleneck of low public participation awareness? What is the effect of TR and CI in the mechanism of empowerment on public participation awareness?

The contributions of this study are as follows: First, it explores the unique dimensions of empowerment in the unique research background of community renewal projects, internalizes empowerment in the practice of exploring the formation mechanism of community public participation awareness, and expands new perspectives on the release of community public governance capacity. Secondly, it reveals the influence paths of community public participation awareness, which not only provides countermeasures for the improvement of public participation awareness in community renewal projects but also provides solutions for the improvement of community governance capacity.

2. Literature review and hypotheses

2.1. Community renewal and public participation in China

The period from reform and opening up to the late 1990s was an exploratory stage in the revitalization and transformation of China’s communities. Community renewal concepts in foreign countries began to influence China. Represented by academician Liangyong Wu (L. Y. Wu 1991), many domestic scholars launched the theory and practice of the city’s “organic renewal” research and gradually launched a national community renewal during the economic transition to explore. Between 2000 and 2014, an intensive exploration phase of diverse and comprehensive community renewal was initiated. To gain high profits, real estate developers began to carry out large-scale land development and urban construction, and unreasonable construction planning caused urban dysfunction, a waste of social resources, spiritual and cultural deficiencies, etc. Therefore, at this stage, the government began to realize the importance of diversified development of the community, began to pay attention to the development of non-material dimensions, and advocated diversified participation in governance (Zou 2015). Since 2014, we have entered a comprehensive exploration phase of people-oriented and sustainable community renewal. In this new stage of development, community renewal has shown an evolutionary trend from reforming “land” to focusing on “people”, and from unilateral domination to multilateral negotiation (Zhang et al. 2022; Zheng et al. 2016).

Main types of community renewal, include government-led and community implementation, government supported and community-led, multi-subject cooperation, resident-led, and other operational mechanisms, in which the extent of the role played by each subject and the logic of governance in practice is quite different. In general it represents a gradual change from administration to self-governance (Alonso, Andrews, and Jorda 2019; D. Z. Li, Du, and Zhu 2021; S. C. Xiao et al. 2023). The current urban spatial development in China focuses on “stock planning”, and community renewal is at the stage of combining top-down planning guidance with bottom-up community building (Du, Du, and Wang 2022; S. M. Li, Z. M. Liu, and C. Ye 2022). The allocation of public facilities in old communities fails to better reflect the actual demands of the residents. Problems such as unclear boundaries of collective spatial rights, insufficient participation of community residents, and insufficient long-term support mechanisms have emerged (Gu et al. 2019; T. Zhou, Zhou, and Liu 2017), so there is an urgent need for “spatial reconfiguration” and “community activation” of the community, as well as guiding the public to participate in it.

In July 2020, the General Office of the State Council issued the Guiding Opinions on Comprehensively Promoting the Renovation of Old Urban Residential Communities (Council, 2020), which marked accelerated progress in community renewal at the state level. The policy addresses the outstanding problems and shortcomings of residential communities and puts forward corresponding requirements in terms of reasonable scale, construction standards, mechanism construction, and residents’ participation (Seo 2020; Zheng, Shen, and Wang 2014). Subsequently, local governments have also formulated implementation measures and regulations on public participation in urban planning to guide the public to actively participate in the construction of community renewal, so as to satisfy public aspirations and enhance the public’s sense of accomplishment in participation.

2.2. Theoretical background

2.2.1. Communicative planning theory

Public participation refers to the way in which individuals engage in activities related to public affairs, public sovereignty, and public obligation. In most areas, public participation is an indispensable way in community renewal and decision-making implementation (Ye and Liu 2013). Participatory theory has attracted attention in the community of planning in general since the 1990s (Faludi and Altes 1994), resulting in reflections on the phenomenon of traditional planning emphasizing technical rationality and neglecting the users of space. Afterward, research in the field focused on criticizing the top-down decision-making process and promoting the value of multiple subjects’ participation in design. The Communicative Planning Theory originated from the “Communicative Reason” proposed by the German social philosopher Habermas in 1979 (Reiss-Schmidt 2015), which is based on mutual comprehension between the subjects, and the rationality of dynamic, bidirectional or multilateral communication, emphasizing the shift from elite domination to the process of broad participation of the society, and focusing on not the results of the planning but the coordination of the relationship (Marcucci, Brinkley, and Jordan 2012; Sutriadi 2015). Communicative planning is characterized by long-term interaction and in-depth participation (Barnes, Newman, and Sullivan 2004). It evokes people’s sense of community identity and belonging through a variety of means. It also sorts out the relationship of interests, motivates participation and cultivates the capacity for participation, so as to break the government’s unilateral domination and establish a long-term and stable communication among different parties, which aims to promote implementation of the plan through collaboration. As a multilateral collaborative planning project among the government, the public, the planners, and the contractors, community renewal coordinating the strategic choices of all participants to reach a consensus is crucial for communicative planning.

Against the backdrop of dramatic changes in economy and politics, communicative planning theory plays an important role in the field of public argumentation and communication policy practice (Healey 1996). Western academics describe communicative planning theory as taking place in diverse and fluid “discourse communities” or cultures, and as an interactive and explanatory process that succeeds in building consensus in strategic planning efforts (Innes and Booher 2004). “Communicative Planning” is defined as a social, ethical, and political practice in which individuals or organizations are involved to varying degrees in the planning and decision-making process through the use of a variety of tools to meet participants’ requirements and safeguard their interests. In China, communicative planning theory took a late start and has not formed a unified definition yet, but comprehensively, it is generally regarded as the active participation of stakeholders in the planning process. Through effective communication, a consensus is reached, so that urban planning can effectively reflect the interests and demands of the public, and truly be “people-oriented” (Hess et al. 2013; Hilgenbocker, Bar, and Kuhnemund 2021).

This paper adopts communicative planning theory to explain the interrelationships of the hypothetical models, focusing on “participation” and “empowerment” as the core to describe the top-down participatory behavior of the public. “Participation” denotes the entitlement to engage in particular activities about one’s interest and the advancement of the community. “Empowerment, with its focus on equitable consultation and recognition of diversity, fosters an inherent “feeling of ownership” among community members, hence promoting community cohesion and playing a crucial role in fostering sustainable community development (Luo et al. 2022).

2.2.2. The new public service theory

The New Public Service Theory, first proposed by Denhardt, emphasizes the importance of the citizen as the core, and believes that the scope and opportunities of social activities should be gradually increased in the process of social participation (Denhardt and Denhardt 2000) and that the government, mainly responsible for social activities, should innovate various ways and means for public participation in social activities, open up the channels of participation, and facilitate public participation in social activities. The theory advocates that the public interest of society is not the aggregation of private interests of all social people, but all social subjects should adhere to the common interests and values of society, making the public at the center of the governance system, and also advocates to change the role of the government from being a leader to a servant (Whitsel 2017), so as to better serve the public. Rather than just responding to the needs of the public, the government focuses on building trust and collaborative relationships with citizens. In any context, NPS aims to encourage an increasing number of citizens to fulfill their responsibilities for social participation and to make the government more attentive to the public voice (Yuan 2017).

The communicative planning model is not only a way for the public to enhance their self-worth but also a way for them to participate in social activities to protect their own interests. At the same time, it is also an effective governance model for government departments to listen to public opinion, improve decision making, and enhance government service capacity. In addition, in the process of providing social services, the change of the government’s changing of its role provides the opportunity and environment for multiple parties to participate, which will help strengthen the cooperative relationship among the participating parties. The specific role path is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Theoretical research model.

2.3. Research hypothesis

2.3.1. Empowerment and public participation awareness (PPA)

Empowerment is the process by which managers empower organizational members, encourage members to engage in self-development, and support employees to participate in decision-making management behaviors in order to enhance their intrinsic motivation and work initiative (Hassard, Wong, and Wang 2022; Tuuli Martin et al. 2015). Currently, scholars have verified from different perspectives that empowering behaviors have a positive impact on public awareness of participation as a motivational method. Jiang and Tian (2019) argued that community organizations can promote participatory platforms through empowerment to provide conditions for individual members of the public to access resources, prompt them to be more active and realize their values, thus promoting collaborative community development (Dooris and Heritage 2013; Kruahong et al. 2023). It is argued that an increase in the public’s sense of psychological empowerment means that the public perceives itself as having greater responsibility and impact on the community (Cheng, Liu, and Zhou 2023), and it feels to be a more tangibly part of the community as a contributor to building the community. Structural empowerment emphasizes stimulating organizational activities by changing the institutional environment to achieve the purpose of improving member efficiency and organizational performance (S. H. Hsieh, Lee, and Tseng 2022), and in a structural empowerment perspective, institutional construction is an effective means of public participation. Given that the current mode of public participation in China’s community renewal projects presents a state of disordered participation, lacks institutional construction, and citizens have no reasonable system of participation to rely on, a participation system arrangement that conforms to the actual situation plays a positive role in the orderly participation of the public.

Thus, empowerment can be used to stimulate public participation in community renewal projects and can bring positive effects to enhance public participation awareness. Empowerment represents a special incentive for the formation and enhancement of public participation awareness, which can solve the problem and bottleneck of low willingness of public participation in community renewal projects, thus stimulating the formation of public participation awareness. Based on the above analysis, Hypothesis 1 is proposed:

H1:

EP has a positive effect on PPA.

2.3.2. The mediating role of trusting relationships (TR)

In community renewal projects where the public and the government are the main actors, government trust and interpersonal trust are the lubricant of interaction between the two parties, and TR is influenced by the expectations, trustworthiness, interactive behaviors, and willingness of both parties (Chen and Sriphon 2022). In studies about trust, scholars generally agree that trust is divided into cognitive and computational trust (C.-C. Hsieh and Wang 2015). The internal and external roles of empowerment fit with the establishment of trust relationships. The internal psychological empowerment atmosphere is conducive to enhancing the formation of the community public’s sense of self-psychological efficacy through the research and interviews of in-depth community residents in the process of government grassroots governance (X. L. Liu and Ren 2022), changing the public’s inherent perception of the government side. In addition, reflects the government’s sense of responsibility and accountability under the government’s pro-people behavioral governance, establishing a good government-public relationship under the communication between the two sides. Under the scope of external structure empowerment, the government establishes smooth information communication channels to increase the transparency of government decision-making, and improves the public participation system to enhance the external environment support for public participation. The empowering atmosphere of combined internal and external governance will solve the phenomenon of information silos that exist between the government and the public to break the inherent concept of bullwhip effect, thus enhancing the trust relationship between the two sides (Lansing et al. 2023; Siyal et al. 2023). Therefore, Hypothesis 2 is proposed:

H2:

EP have a positive effect on TR.

The main source of public trust in government is the empirical judgment of institutional performance or governance performance (Muhammad et al. 2022), and stakeholders with high trust have strong cooperative relationships and are more significantly willing to participate in interactive cooperation with each other (Ning et al. 2019). In community renewal projects, the public is able to generate perceived value and willingness to participate in processes or governance programs related to community renewal activities based on trust (Rydin and Natarajan 2016). Therefore, Hypothesis 3 is proposed:

H3:

TR has a positive effect on PPA.

Based on H2 and H3, we can propose the following hypothesis:

H4:

TR plays a mediating role in the positive correlation between EP and PPA.

2.3.3. The mediating role of community identity (CI)

In sociology, community identity is usually measured by three indicators: “sense of community,” “community cohesion,” and “community attachment” (Escalera-Reyes 2020), Empowerment stimulates the public’s sense of subjectivity through external institutional and technical arrangements internal incentives, which not only enhances residents’ sense of psychological self-efficacy, but also creates a strong sense of belonging and attachment to the community (Atanasova and Petric 2019), while the enhanced sense of collective empowerment will also lead to the enhancement of the consistency of the community’s group activities and increase the cohesiveness of the community’s public. Hence this study can make the following hypothesis:

H5:

EP has a positive effect on CI.

Community identity is a prerequisite and intrinsic motivation for the formation of public participation awareness, and participation without identity is only a passive and compulsory mobilization (Paskett et al. 2019). Community identity is an important manifestation of the public’s sense of belonging in public life, and it is an important motivational mechanism for the public to realize their values and stimulate their sense of participation. Community identity reflects residents’ renewed recognition of the community and their emotional connection to the community, and it is the force that drives the public to participate in community affairs, so community identity is considered a prerequisite for the formation of public participation consciousness (Bowe et al. 2020; Y. Wang et al. 2020). Accordingly, the following hypothesis can be made:

H6:

CI and PPA have a positive correlation.

Based on H5 and H6, we can propose the following hypothesis:

H7:

CI plays a mediating role in the positive correlation between EP and PPA.

2.3.4. The mediating role of trusting relationships and community identity

Kalkbrenner and Roosen (2016) argued that the trust relationship between the government and the public is an important precondition for a strong sense of community identity among the public collectively When the government gains the trust of the public, it is more conducive to the work of the public and helps the government to guide the public with social values so that the public can form a positive sense of community identity (Pérez-Chiqués and Meza 2021). Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H8:

TR and CI have a positive correlation.

Based on the review of previous literature, this research suggests that the empowerment of the government will stimulate the formation of public participation by establishing and maintaining a good trust relationship with the public, which in turn will stimulate the public to take the initiative. Therefore, this study can make the following hypothesis based on H4, H7, and H8:

H9:

TR and CI produce a chained mediation role in the positive correlation between EP and PPA.

As mentioned above, the hypothetical path model of this paper was shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Hypothetical path model.

3. Research methodology

3.1. Data collection

The data in this research was obtained from professionals engaged in or employed in community renewal projects in China, as well as from citizens of the affected communities. For community renewal projects, there is no comprehensive or standard database that can be directly queried for relevant fit data. Non-probability convenience sampling is widely used in the construction industry to ensure response rates. The key informant method was adopted to ensure the accuracy of the data, and respondents were asked to respond based on their most recent and deepest involvement in a community renewal project.

Considering the geographical differences in China, the questionnaires were distributed to different groups of urban community regeneration projects at different levels of development, both online and offline. A pre-survey was conducted and the questionnaire was revised based on the data collected prior to the formal research. The study was conducted from 1 October 2022, to 1 June 2023, with a nationwide sample of questionnaires. A total of 120 paper questionnaires were distributed, excluding invalid questionnaires, and the number of valid questionnaires was 91; 348 electronic questionnaires were returned, and the number of valid questionnaires was 239, for a total of 330 valid questionnaires (Table 1).

Table 1. Descriptive basic information statistics of respondents.

Variable	Group	Frequency	Percentage (%)
Gender	Male	161	48.78%
	Female	169	51.21%
Age	<30	94	28.48%
	31–40	105	31.81%
	41–50	80	24.24%
	>50	51	15.45%
Education	High school and below	105	31.81%
	Junior college	83	25.15%
	Bachelor degree	105	31.81%
	Master degree	24	7.27%
	Ph.D.	13	3.93%
Occupation	State Owned Enterprise Practitioners	67	20.30%
	Administrative agencies employees	43	13.03%
	Self-employed person	75	22.72%
	Private Sector Practitioners	117	35.45%
	Student	25	7.57%
	Other	3	0.90%
Community Renewal Project Understanding	Very familiar	23	6.97%
	Understand	71	21.51%
	General understanding	206	62.42%
	Little understanding	18	5.45%
	Completely unaware	12	3.63%

3.2. Selection of variables

3.2.1. Explained variables

PPA is the explained variable in this study. Based on scholars’ research on the formation of PPA, this study measures PPA in community renewal from three aspects: self-awareness, responsibility, and sense of belonging (Anderson, Schirmer, and Abjorensen 2012; J. Q. Wu et al. 2023).

3.2.2. Explanatory variables

The empowerment variable is the explanatory variable in this study’s model, and it is expected to be positively related to TR, CI, and PPA. There are few empirical studies on empowerment, and a unified and mature scale has not been developed yet. Existing approaches are measured through various aspects of psychological empowerment, structural empowerment, and leadership empowerment. Since empowerment theory is still in the exploration stage, the implementation of empowerment in community renewal projects is not yet widespread. This study adopts a new perspective and refers to relevant existing studies to investigate the motivational effects on community PPA from the perspectives of psychological empowerment and structural empowerment (Ahn and Bessiere 2022; Al-Hammouri, Rababah, and Ta’an 2021).

3.2.3. Intermediate variables

TR and CI are the mediating variables in the model. Based on previous research, this paper considers both government trust and interpersonal trust to measure TR (You, Wang, and He 2023). The most important reason for empowering behaviors’ inspiration of CI is the dual intrinsic and extrinsic motivational effects of empowerment. Therefore, this paper will measure CI in three aspects: community consciousness, community attachment, and community cohesion (Chiu, Fang, and Wang 2015; Nasr et al. 2022).

4. Data analysis and results

4.1. Reliability and validity tests

The questionnaire data were tested for reliability using SPSS22.0, and the overall Cronbach’s α value is 0.962. The specific reliability analysis results of the four variables are shown in Table 2. It can be seen from the results of the reliability analysis of each variable that the formal questionnaire data collected in this study shows good overall reliability, and the Cronbach’s α coefficient values of the four variables are all above 0.9. Accordingly, the reliability of the variables in this study is good, and therefore, all of the questionnaires in this study have good reliability and can be studied in the next step.

Table 2. Descriptive statistical analysis of variables.

Items	Measuring items	AVE	Variance	CITC	Cronbach’s α
EP1	I need to participate in community renewal activities	68.167	152.554	0.709	0.961
EP2	Participating in community renewal activities is very meaningful to me	68.107	155.922	0.635
EP3	I possess a degree of influence over community renewal initiatives.	67.987	153.284	0.72
EP4	I am confident in my ability to participate	67.913	155.518	0.669
EP5	I think the community has established a good system of participation	68.093	152.647	0.7
EP6	I have open channels for participation, and participation information is passed around the community very freely	68.073	152.376	0.724
CI1	I think there is value in participating in community updates	68.473	154.718	0.6
CI2	I think the community public has a responsibility to build the community	68.147	151.965	0.703	0.961
CI3	I will take the initiative to get information about community development	68.303	150.225	0.794
CI4	I have a strong sense of belonging to the community	68.513	150.98	0.783
CI5	I think community renewal requires collaboration among many parties	68.56	151.806	0.713
TR1	Trust in the participatory system developed by the Government	68.293	150.355	0.838	0.96
TR2	Trust in fairness and transparency in the work of the Government	68.13	151.772	0.792
TR3	Community members and I can give each other advice and help when there are difficulties in the workplace.	67.933	153.032	0.764
TR4	I can talk freely with community members about difficulties in community engagement and they are willing to listen	68.15	151.345	0.802
PPA1	I think I am part of the community and I belong here	68.323	152.735	0.712	0.96
PPA2	I have a deep emotional attachment to the community	68.203	152.43	0.739
PPA3	Community makes me feel at home	68.213	152.135	0.745
PPA4	I am very aware of the history of the community and my upbringing is inextricably linked to it	68.407	151.306	0.748
PPA5	I often participate in various activities organized by the community	68.21	151.986	0.789

In terms of validity testing, exploratory factor analysis was conducted and the results from the KMO test of the four variables showed (Table 3) that the values of KMO are 0.887, 0.866, 0.837, and 0.833, while the results of Bartlett’s spherical test show that the significance p-value is ***, showing significance at the 1% level, rejecting the original hypothesis that the variables are correlated with each other. The factor analysis is valid and the degree is suitable.

Table 3. KMO values and Bartlett’s significance of the empowerment table.

	KMO	Bartlett’s sphere test
		Approx. Chi-Square	df	P
EP	0.887	915.233	15	***
PPA	0.866	693.786	10	***
TR	0.837	752.428	6	***
CI	0.833	892.48	10	***
Total	0.959	4658.34	190	***

*p<0.05，**p<0.01，***p<0.001.

4.2. Model goodness-of-fit test

The model was tested and the results of the analysis of empowerment on PPA are shown in Table 4. the fitting results of the model present that: the ratio of cardinal degrees of freedom $\left(x^2/\mathit{df}\right)$ is 2.136, which is less than the recommended value of 3 and reaches the significant level, and RMSEA = 0.053, which is between 0.05–0.08, indicating a good fit of the model, CFI = 0.931. Therefore, the overall fit of the model is good.

Table 4. Model fit indices.

Fitness index	Indicators	Criteria
Chi-square/(degree of freedom) $\left(x^2/\mathit{df}\right)$	2.136	<5 acceptable; <3 good
Root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA)	0.053	<0.1 acceptable; <0.08 good
Comparative fit index (CFI)	0.931	>0.90
Tucker–Lewis index (TLI)	0.928	>0.90

4.3. Hypothesis testing

The theoretical model and hypotheses constructed in this paper were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the data and verify whether the hypotheses are supported (Figure 2). The fitting results of the model present that the ratio of cardinal degrees of freedom$\left(x^2/\mathit{df}\right)$ is 2.136, which is less than the recommended value of 3 and reaches the significant level, RMSEA = 0.053, which is between 0.05–0.08, indicating a good model fit, CFI = 0.931, and TLI = 0.928, which is greater than the suggested value of 0.9. Therefore, the overall fit of the model is good. According to the SEM regression results (Table 5), hypotheses H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H8 are verified.

Table 5. Standardized path coefficients of the structural model and hypothesis testing.

Hypothesis		Path coefficient	SE	z	P-values	Result
H1	EP ⇒ PPA	0.021	0.114	13.380	**	Support
H2	EP ⇒ TR	0.899	0.072	14.086	***	Support
H3	TR ⇒ PPA	0.908	0.111	7.149	***	Support
H4	EP ⇒ CI	0.008	0.084	13.085	*	Support
H5	CI ⇒ PPA	0.362	0.110	2.795	**	Support
H8	TR ⇒ CI	0.605	0.133	3.398	**	Support

*p<0.05，**p<0.01，***p<0.001.

4.4. Intermediation effects

The Bootstrap sampling test for mediating effects was employed, and the number of samples in the data analysis of this paper is 5000. The sampling results are shown in Table 6. According to the mediating path of “EP⇒TR⇒PPA”, the 95% interval does not include the number 0 (95% CI: 0.182 ~ 0.423). Therefore, the “EP⇒TR⇒PPA” mediation path exists. According to the mediation path of “EP⇒CI⇒PPA”, the 95% interval does not include the number 0 (95% CI: 0.040 ~ 0.149), therefore, the mediation path of “EP⇒CI⇒PPA” exists. Results of the second analysis of the chain mediating path show that the 95% interval does not include the number 0 (95% CI: 0.146 ~ 0.292). According to the mediating path of “EP⇒TR⇒CI⇒PPA”, therefore, the mediating path of “EP⇒TR⇒CI⇒PPA” mediating effect path exists. Finally, the mediating effect model was tested for the above judgments, and the respective p-values of F values for each term are less than 0.05, so the results passed the test, thus H6, H7, and H9 were verified.

Table 6. Results of intermediary effect analysis.

	Path	Effect	Boot SE	BootLLCI	BootULCI	z	p
H6	EP⇒TR⇒PPA	0.329	0.062	0.182	0.423	5.320	***
H7	EP⇒CI⇒PPA	0.096	0.027	0.040	0.149	3.498	***
H9	EP⇒TR⇒CI⇒PPA	0.234	0.037	0.146	0.292	6.354	***

5. Discussion and reflection

5.1. Discussion

This study investigates the process by which three factors, including EP, TR, and CI influence public awareness to participate in community renewal. Nine hypotheses were proposed, all of which are supported.

By constructing an effective mechanism for empowerment and community renewal of public participation, this study contributes to the understanding of the direct and indirect impacts of empowerment on public participation awareness, which contributes to both theory and management practice. The results show that empowerment has a significant positive correlation with the willingness of the public to participate in community renewal. The government’s empowerment of the public has stimulated the public’s self-efficacy for participating in community renewal activities, and prompted the public to feel the significance of their contributions to community building and their participation in community renewal activities. Structured participatory systems and participatory channels provide protection for the participatory behaviors, and this kind of management style with the effect of empowerment positively influences the formation of the awareness of the public’s participation. Research hypothesis H1 was proved, which is similar to the results of leadership empowerment incentive study conducted by Epitropaki et al. (2017). It has also been verified by Xiao et al. (2023a) that delegation of authority fosters participation in decision-making initiatives and is an effective means of stimulating individual initiative.

Empowerment can indirectly affect the awareness of public participation in the community by influencing trust relationships and community identity, in addition to directly affecting willingness to participate. This is similar to the view of Midha (2012) that empowerment can influence the level of consumer trust. Liao et al. (2023) argued that community identity can be enhanced by empowering the people involved. These suggest that empowered community public can develop a stronger sense of self-efficacy and increase trust and community identity, hence H2 and H5 were proved. Based on the literature on community renewal, it can be seen that TR and CI are the key factors affecting the public’s PPA in community renewal projects (Ma et al. 2022; Tsai and Hung 2019; J. Zhao et al. 2013). Through the development of a relationship of trust, the relationship between the stakeholders of a community renewal project becomes closer, effectively promoting synergy to ensure active public participation and the realization of community renewal objectives (Haq, Usman, and Khalid 2016). A strong sense of community identity is an important foundation for the public to fulfill the goal of community renewal through collective efforts (Ratanakosol, Pathumcharoenwattana, and Kimpee 2015). The value of community identity in emphasizing the sense of belonging and interpersonal relationships contributes to the public’s ability to have strong and consistent ideas about the issue of community collectivization, which facilitates the advancement of community renewal. Based on the findings of the above scholars, H3 and H6 were supported.

Furthermore, this study verifies that TR, CI, and “TR-CI”, all three variables mediate between empowerment and public participation awareness. Many studies have examined trust as a mediator to test different relationships, for example Podsakoff et al. (1990) examined the mediating role of leader trust in the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational citizens’ behavior. Wang et al. (2021) have analyzed the role of CI in the relationship between the motivation and willingness of communities to participate in tourism development. As a result, H4 and H7 were supported. In addition, this study suggests that TR can affect CI and verifies the chain mediation of “TR-CI”. Among the three mediating roles, the mediating effect of trust relationship is the strongest, the mediating effect of the chain mediator “TR-CI” is the second strongest, and the mediating effect of CI is the weakest. The results of the model analysis show that empowerment indirectly affects CI through TR, and this indirect effect partially weakens the mediating effect of CI. Therefore, TR is a more important factor in the process of enhancing PPA.

5.2. Reflections recommendations

This study has significant ramifications for government policy development. First, the general public’s attitudes and habits have a substantial positive impact on their engagement behavior in community renewal. Before the project initiation, the government should prioritize the promotion of individual motivation through empowerment and effectively harness the public’s self-efficacy to heighten their awareness of their capacity to engage in community renewal efforts and encourage widespread resident participation. In addition, in this special social community, the opinions and behaviors of other people in the community have a certain influence on the public’s willingness to participate, so the government can make use of this community attribute to give priority to empowering pioneer groups to realize the formation of participation consciousness to drive more community groups to participate and encourage the public to actively participate in the process of community renewal to realize the full play of community.

Second, the connection between people has become weaker, and the development of modernization has led to intergroup isolation, which has led to the gradual separation of people from each other and the fading of their sense of identity. In the process of community governance, the grassroots government’s guidance of community values is an effective way for the public to form a sense of community identity. (1) First-line managers can interact with community activities and put up posters to promote knowledge about community culture and community renewal, gradually cultivate the public’s democratic consciousness, and make the public build up a sense of attachment to the community. (2) The government can invite professional community planners to provide regular training sessions for the public, focusing on topics related to community regeneration and development, and guide the public to take the initiative to think about social problems and solutions through simple and easy-to-understand language so that the right of community maintenance and construction can be given to the community public better.

Finally, community renewal projects have been progressing, and while the general population is hesitant to participate, they will silently express their opinions, primarily due to insufficient avenues for engagement and their demands cannot be reflected. Therefore, there is a need to expand the channels of participation and improve the ways of participation. (1) Enhancing the public complaints and petitions system, establishing public opinion discussion platforms, and organizing residents’ meetings to expand avenues for expression, the collection of opinions can also be carried out with the help of online communication tools. (2) The government is required to change its dominant role and assume more service-oriented government responsibilities. It should recognize the significance of multi-participants in community renewal and establish a synergistic, rather than hierarchical, relationship with the public.

In conclusion, the government should create a positive atmosphere for public participation in community renewal, to give the public the courage and motivation to participate. As the invisible hand of urban management, the government should play the role of resource integration in the process of community renewal, provide safeguards for community renewal, and form a community renewal system with diversified participation.

6. Conclusions

Community renewal is an important strategic transformation method in the process of sustainable, organic, and healthy urban development, and comprehensive and coordinated urban development cannot be achieved without the renewal and maintenance of old communities. Currently, community renewal projects are progressing rapidly, and with the completion of the first batch of old community projects, the problems caused by the lack of public participation, such as symbolic participation, unbalanced interests of all parties, and low satisfaction of the residents of the renovation projects, have been exposed. Therefore, this paper constructs a research framework based on Communicative Planning Theory and New Public Service Theory, analyzes how empowerment behavior affects public awareness of participation in community renewal projects from the perspective of empowerment. This paper also constructs a theoretical model, proposes relevant research hypotheses, and tests the hypotheses through questionnaire data analysis and AMOS software.

Based on previous research, this study explores the specific dimensions of empowerment in the community context based on the unique public scope of community renewal projects under the universally accepted research dimensions of empowerment, which can help to enhance the measurement and examination of empowerment elements in the scenarios of community renewal projects. Measurement items of empowerment, trust relationship, community identity, and public participation were also designed to enrich the assessment indexes of public participation awareness formation research. The results of the study provide new approaches for the improvement of public participation awareness in community renewal projects.

There are some limitations with this study: on the one hand, the empowerment theory in community governance has been extensively studied in the past, but the public as an empowered object has received less attention, so this study lacks some literature support; on the other hand, an empirical analysis of the valid questionnaires is required to test the hypotheses, so there are requirements on the type of questions to ask and how many to collect. The restricted number of questionnaires provided in this study, however, has an impact on the empirical results. In order to better encourage the public’s sense of participation, this study’s future research should fully consider the subjective qualities of various public categories and further refine empowerment strategies in tandem with the execution of community renewal projects.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Guangdong Office of Philosophy and Social Science [GD21CGL31]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [72072126].

Notes on contributors

Chunling Sun

Chunling Sun, professor of Tianjin University of Technology, main research fields include organizational behavior and engineering management, etc.

Jingjing Liu

Jingjing Liu, PhD candidate, Tianjin University of Technology, research fields include urban renewal, organizational behavior management, engineering management, etc.

Yifei Chen

Yifei Chen, master’s degree of Tianjin University of Technology, research fields include community renewal, community governance, etc.