In a residential development that incorporates collective property rights, there are interior and exterior shared spaces collectively owned and used by multiple residents. These shared spaces defy a stark public‐private division. Applying the perspective of situated cognition in a case‐oriented qualitative analysis, this study investigated residents' caretaking attitudes about shared spaces in three high‐rise gated developments in Shanghai, China. Qualitative data was obtained from 61 long‐term residents pertaining to situational environments, situated persons, person‐environment transactions, and environmental perception and meanings. Results revealed that the entanglement of residents and environmental settings in these developments defined different types of holistic person-environment units, which further implied different caring attitudes. The investigation also demonstrated diagrammatic data coding and displays as effective case‐oriented analytical techniques to present and compare ecological units of analysis. Discussion articulates a holistic application of situated cognition in environment‐behavior research. Key Words: Shared spaces—Caretaking attitudes—Situated cognition—Case-oriented analysis—Person-environment unit.
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