Abstract
Industrial heritage-led urban regeneration depends not only on conserving and adaptively reusing former industrial sites but also on involving communities in identifying heritage values and shaping decisions about reuse and long-term management. This study tests an established social-capital-place-attachment model in a setting where retained factory fabric, industrial memory, contemporary creative production, commercial activity, and nearby residential life intersect. Questionnaire data were obtained from 368 respondents connected with M50 Creative Park in Shanghai, comprising 106 park-based workers, practitioners, and business operators (28.8%) and 262 nearby residents (71.2%). Covariance-based structural equation modeling showed that social networks, social trust, and social norms were positively associated with place attachment and reported participation; place attachment was also positively associated with participation, and all three indirect associations were significant in bias-corrected bootstrap tests. The findings indicate that relational resources and emotional and functional bonds to an adaptively reused industrial place are jointly associated with participation. Given the cross-sectional, single-site design, the findings should be interpreted as associations rather than causal effects and require validation in other industrial heritage contexts.