The housing reform in China aims at commodification and privatization of urban housing. Using data from a household survey conducted in Guangzhou, the present paper examines the relationship between a household's socio-economic... more
The housing reform in China aims at commodification and privatization of urban housing. Using data from a household survey conducted in Guangzhou, the present paper examines the relationship between a household's socio-economic characteristics and the source of housing provision, and the factors governing the tenure form. The results show that households with different sets of characteristics are associated with particular
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This article examines the changing pattern of population migration and its implications for the urbanization process in China as revealed by the 1990 Population Census and the 1995 National One Percent Sample Population Survey. It is... more
This article examines the changing pattern of population migration and its implications for the urbanization process in China as revealed by the 1990 Population Census and the 1995 National One Percent Sample Population Survey. It is found that, in comparison with the period 1985–90, migration in the period 1990–95 tended to be more distance sensitive, reflecting the increase in the number of migration foci resulting from the policy of opening on all fronts. Foreign investment also appears to have a greater effect on migration flow. Proportionately, there was an increase in both village-to-village and city-to-city migrations. The former was most sensitive to increase in distance while the latter was least sensitive. As for rural-to-urban flows, which include both village-to-town and village-to-city flows, migrants in China increasingly bypassed the towns and ended up in the cities.
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The gradualist housing reform over the past quarter century has produced a highly complex mix of housing tenure forms and consumption patterns in urban China. Using a sample of sixteen hundred residential histories derived from a survey... more
The gradualist housing reform over the past quarter century has produced a highly complex mix of housing tenure forms and consumption patterns in urban China. Using a sample of sixteen hundred residential histories derived from a survey conducted in 2001, this article traces how individuals and households in Beijing responded to the different phases of the urban housing reform and gradually moved from renting work unit housing to owner occupation over the period 1980 to 2001. The proportional hazards model is used to analyze the factors that affected the tenure change at different points in time. The findings show that despite gradual introduction of market mechanisms, established rules that favored seniority in the workplace and people holding redistributive powers continued to be practiced in reform China. Cadres in Party and government organizations and state-owned enterprises and people with many years in the work unit were those who were most likely to experience the ownership ...
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Since the launch of market-oriented reforms, China has been on a rapid urbanization path unprecedented in world’s history. Last year, the government procl.aimed an ambitious urbanization blueprint ...
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ABSTRACT After being showcased during Shanghai EXPO2010, Dafen village has been put forward as an example of “best practice” governance that has transformed a backward urban village into an art cluster. Behind this glorified image is a... more
ABSTRACT After being showcased during Shanghai EXPO2010, Dafen village has been put forward as an example of “best practice” governance that has transformed a backward urban village into an art cluster. Behind this glorified image is a continuously re-constructed social landscape. In this study, we adopt the approach of state territorialization, drawing insights from the Foucauldian concept of governmentality as disposition of things—in particular people and their relations to land. At issue here is how the dynamic process of territorialization, combined with the Chinese version of moral citizenship, serves the remaking of subjects, landscape, and their relations. In Dafen village, the experiment of fabricating conditioned welfare within China’s welfare system conjures up a new hukou arrangement and new forms of inclusion and exclusion. By exercising the technology of self-regulation, the state seeks temporal and fragile alignments with selected social groups. The outcomes are contingent and frequently take the form of new configurations of power.
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China’s unprecedented urbanization is unique in world development history, not only because of its rapidity and the sheer scale of rural-urban migration, but also due to its special institutions of...
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This paper studies the place attachment of Shanghai residents who have been displaced by redevelopment projects. The objective is to present the condition of the displaced residents and to add another easily ignored dimension to the study... more
This paper studies the place attachment of Shanghai residents who have been displaced by redevelopment projects. The objective is to present the condition of the displaced residents and to add another easily ignored dimension to the study of China's phenomenal urban transformation. The first author conducted in-depth interviews during summer 2004 and 2005. Thematic analysis was employed to understand the dynamics of the everyday life experiences of these displaced residents. The findings show that the place attachment of displaced Shanghai residents is strongly connected with the generalized social environment and personal emotions generated through the constant bargaining in their everyday lives. In an environment of urban redevelopment in post-socialist China, bargaining place attachment is built on people's bargain with their social environment. ”Bargaining” has become not only their negotiation strategy, but also the way they are attached to place-Shanghai. Moreover, bargaining place attachment legitimates the idea that place detachment is indispensable in the redevelopment of urban China.
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China has witnessed an unprecedented urban revolution, manifested by rapid urbanization and massive migration that have driven the proportion of urban population above 50 percent. Along with the expansion of cities, millions of migrants... more
China has witnessed an unprecedented urban revolution, manifested by rapid urbanization and massive migration that have driven the proportion of urban population above 50 percent. Along with the expansion of cities, millions of migrants move across the rural and urban boundaries, between different regions, and beyond the limits of the household registration status (戶口hukou). From 1982 to 2010, the number of cities increased from 244 to 654, and the number of rural-hukou migrants in urban areas increased from 46.5 million to 205.6 million. The expansion of urban areas and population has been characterized not only by its scale and rapidity but also by the high degree of spatial variability. Under the market-oriented reforms, China’s eastern coastal areas, or “early-developed” regions, were “opened up” first and have benefited from preferential policies. Some coastal and major metropolises like Beijing, The China Review, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Feburary 2018), 1–10
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Abstract Momentous events have characterized the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region since its founding in 1997. Among these were drastic and repeated changes in housing and policies, shifting from one emphasizing the role of the... more
Abstract Momentous events have characterized the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region since its founding in 1997. Among these were drastic and repeated changes in housing and policies, shifting from one emphasizing the role of the state to one purportedly relying primarily on market forces, and then back to a more proactive stance of the state. Associated with these changes were roller-coaster movements in residential prices and housing completions. These developments took place in the context of phenomenal upheavals within and beyond Hong Kong: the Asian financial crisis and the burst of Hong Kong’s property bubble; the contestation of Hong Kong’s autonomy under “one country, two systems”; and the flooding of “hot money” consequent upon repeated rounds of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve of the United States to counteract the global financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the Great Recession that followed.
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Wholesale redevelopment, suburbanization and increased population mobility in recent decades have brought significant social and spatial changes to urban neighbourhoods in Chinese cities, not least the subjective feelings of residents... more
Wholesale redevelopment, suburbanization and increased population mobility in recent decades have brought significant social and spatial changes to urban neighbourhoods in Chinese cities, not least the subjective feelings of residents about their neighbourhoods. While there is a substantial literature on urban restructuring and migration at different geographical scales, relatively little is known about how feelings such as neighbourhood attachment are conditioned upon residential mobility and neighbourhood change in Chinese cities. To address this deficiency in the literature, multi-level models are employed to explore the extent to which residential mobility affects three different dimensions of neighbourhood attachment based on a large-scale household survey conducted in Guangzhou in 2012. The findings show that mobility experience and neighbourhood-related factors exert discernible influences on the attitudes towards the neighbourhood. Specifically, while people staying in refor...
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... the Asian Financial Crisis of 199798, the Chinese Government identified housing as ... However, due to the difficulty of identifying appropriate instrumental variables and data availability ... of commodity housing buyers and the... more
... the Asian Financial Crisis of 199798, the Chinese Government identified housing as ... However, due to the difficulty of identifying appropriate instrumental variables and data availability ... of commodity housing buyers and the percentage contributions of various sources of finance ...
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This paper examines the role of personal housing loans in advancing homeownership in urban China. The focus is on the Housing Provident Fund (HPF) and commercial bank mortgage loans. National data show that the use of HPF loans and bank... more
This paper examines the role of personal housing loans in advancing homeownership in urban China. The focus is on the Housing Provident Fund (HPF) and commercial bank mortgage loans. National data show that the use of HPF loans and bank loans has only ...
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This paper analyzes the residential mobility rate in Beijing over the period 1980–2001 as revealed by retrospective residential histories collected by a questionnaire survey conducted in early 2001. The results show that there was a sharp... more
This paper analyzes the residential mobility rate in Beijing over the period 1980–2001 as revealed by retrospective residential histories collected by a questionnaire survey conducted in early 2001. The results show that there was a sharp increase in residential mobility in the early reform period; however, from the mid-1980s onwards the mobility rate has been oscillating, with a slightly downward trend. Adjusting the gross mobility rate observed by means of logit regression estimation shows that this downward trend is more than a statistical artefact. Structural forces are at work continually to restrain residential moves under the reform. The regression results also show that, although there are similarities between the effects of various life-course variables on residential mobility in Beijing and those in cities in market economies, substantial differences are also found. Age exhibits similar curvilinear effects but mobility peaks at a somewhat later age. Homeownership with partial property rights deters mobility by an even greater margin in Beijing than in cities in the West. Change in marital status is important, but does not automatically bring about a change in residence. Birth of a child, moreover, appears to carry minimal weight in residential change. In this sense, the thesis that residential mobility is a housing-adjustment process is less applicable to the case of Beijing than it is in cities in the West.
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Chinese cities are undergoing massive transformation. One after another, inner-city neighbourhoods of pre-1949 origin and work-unit compounds built in the socialist period are being torn apart, giving way to glossy office towers and... more
Chinese cities are undergoing massive transformation. One after another, inner-city neighbourhoods of pre-1949 origin and work-unit compounds built in the socialist period are being torn apart, giving way to glossy office towers and luxurious condominiums. Millions of people have been uprooted and forced to be relocated. Mass media and research based on case studies generally convey a message of widespread grievance among the displaced residents. Based on a survey of 1200 households conducted in Shanghai in 2006, the present study provides a systematic account of the profiles of the displaced residents, juxtaposed against other resident groups of the city. The major conclusion is that, irrespective of all the criticisms concerning unregulated demolitions and forced evictions, the housing conditions of displaced residents are somewhat better than those of other Shanghai residents, both objectively and in terms of subjective evaluations.
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Although changes in urban space often mean a restructuring of social relations, few studies elucidate why network-related frameworks are inherently related to residential outcomes in urban neighborhoods. By proposing a relational account... more
Although changes in urban space often mean a restructuring of social relations, few studies elucidate why network-related frameworks are inherently related to residential outcomes in urban neighborhoods. By proposing a relational account of neighborhood governance, we investigate outcomes of neighborhood governance by incorporating a series of measures of network forms of organization, network-based social capital, and neighborly interactions. Based on a collaborative survey project conducted in Guangzhou, we find that neighborhood ties and neighborly interactions are positively associated with neighborhood attachment and cohesion, whereas uneven power relations between grassroots governments and civic homeowners associations are negatively associated with these two measures. These results not only reveal new social dynamics in urban space but also lend support to a relational account of neighborhood governance.
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Although changes in urban space often mean a restructuring of social relations, few studies elucidate why network-related frameworks are inherently related to residential outcomes in urban neighborhoods. By proposing a relational account... more
Although changes in urban space often mean a restructuring of social relations, few studies elucidate why network-related frameworks are inherently related to residential outcomes in urban neighborhoods. By proposing a relational account of neighborhood governance, we investigate outcomes of neighborhood governance by incorporating a series of measures of network forms of organization, network-based social capital, and neighborly interactions. Based on a collaborative survey project conducted in Guangzhou, we find that neighborhood ties and neighborly interactions are positively associated with neighborhood attachment and cohesion, whereas uneven power relations between grassroots governments and civic homeowners associations are negatively associated with these two measures. These results not only reveal new social dynamics in urban space but also lend support to a relational account of neighborhood governance.
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... an equitable distribution of housing benefits, whether it be measured in vertical or horizontal terms. ... The 1986 Property Review showed that rent for a small flat (less than 39 .9 ... market averaged HK$65.15 per square metre,... more
... an equitable distribution of housing benefits, whether it be measured in vertical or horizontal terms. ... The 1986 Property Review showed that rent for a small flat (less than 39 .9 ... market averaged HK$65.15 per square metre, whereas ac-cording to the Housing Authority's Report ...
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Page 1. Urban Studies (1985) 22, 133-140 © 1985 Urban Studies The Welfare Cost of Hong Kong's Public Housing Programme* Fu-Lai Yu and Si-Ming Li [First received October 1983; in final form June 1984] Summary. Public ...
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Chinese cities have experienced rapid growth and restructuring in recent times. This paper examines the evolving residential and employment locations and the changes in the patterns of commuting in Guangzhou, China. Tabulations derived... more
Chinese cities have experienced rapid growth and restructuring in recent times. This paper examines the evolving residential and employment locations and the changes in the patterns of commuting in Guangzhou, China. Tabulations derived from household surveys conducted in 2001 and 2005 show rapid suburbanisation of both residence and employment. Intrazone traffic today dominates the commuting scene in both the central
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... In fact, much of the land within each village has been requisitioned for development ... own consumption and rented out the unneeded space mainly to inbound migrants from China's ... These neighborhood types occupy... more
... In fact, much of the land within each village has been requisitioned for development ... own consumption and rented out the unneeded space mainly to inbound migrants from China's ... These neighborhood types occupy different components of urban space and are character-ized ...
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It is by now well documented that China's remarkable economic and social development has been accomopanied by an equally astonishing spatial transformation. The concentrated Maoist city with its cellular work-unit structure... more
It is by now well documented that China's remarkable economic and social development has been accomopanied by an equally astonishing spatial transformation. The concentrated Maoist city with its cellular work-unit structure of mixed functions amidst open rural land ...
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Abstract: Based on retrospective life histories derived from a sample of 1,500 households, the present study estimates the changing rate of residential mobility in Guangzhou, China, during the period 19802001. The estimated mobility rate... more
Abstract: Based on retrospective life histories derived from a sample of 1,500 households, the present study estimates the changing rate of residential mobility in Guangzhou, China, during the period 19802001. The estimated mobility rate shows a rapidly rising trend and this ...
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Urban Geography, 2010, 31, 4, pp. 434452. DOI: 10.2747/0272-3638.31.4.434 Copyright © 2010 by Bellwether Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved. ... WORK, HOME, AND MARKET: THE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION OF HOUSING SPACE IN GUANGZHOU, CHINA1
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... Printed in the Netherlands. The effectiveness of differential pricing on route choice The case of the mass transit railway of Hong Kong SI-MING LI & FIONA CL WONG Hong Kong Baptist College, 224 Waterloo Road, Kowloon, Hong... more
... Printed in the Netherlands. The effectiveness of differential pricing on route choice The case of the mass transit railway of Hong Kong SI-MING LI & FIONA CL WONG Hong Kong Baptist College, 224 Waterloo Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong ...
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Re-commodification of urban land and housing has produced a highly complex tenure mix and a much more vibrant and differentiated urban landscape. Land leasing, being a major source of fund to urban municipal governments, fuels the... more
Re-commodification of urban land and housing has produced a highly complex tenure mix and a much more vibrant and differentiated urban landscape. Land leasing, being a major source of fund to urban municipal governments, fuels the expansionary drive and urban sprawl. It also underlies massive redevelopment of inner city districts. On the other hand, institutionalised separation of the urban from the rural, epitomised by the hukou system, has remained largely intact. Massive influx of migrants has produced a two-class urban society comprising de jure residents and migrants. Differential claim to land ownership under the hukou system has turned villages in former suburban areas into migrant enclaves. The six papers in this theme issue examine various aspects of how individuals and households in Chinese cities have coped with the never-ending changes in the policy and built environment. The focus is on housing behaviour, but neighbourhood issues also feature prominently.
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Page 1. Housing Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2, 213236, 2000 The Housing Market and Tenure Decisions in Chinese Cities: A Multivariate Analysis of the Case of Guangzhou* SI-MING LI Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong... more
Page 1. Housing Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2, 213236, 2000 The Housing Market and Tenure Decisions in Chinese Cities: A Multivariate Analysis of the Case of Guangzhou* SI-MING LI Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong ...
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Page 1. I Introduction Twenty years have passed since Deng Xiaoping first launched China's housing reform in 1979. There have been many ups and downs, but the general direction is one of commodification. Strenuous efforts ...
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Page 1. 1 Introduction China's housing reforms and their implications for urban spatial restructuring have been given increasing attention by international scholars. Dowall (1993), Tolley (1991),Wang and Murie (1996), and Wu ...
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This paper uses the concept of citizenship in the social sense of membership and the right to an allocation of resources to examine the urban citizenship of migrants in Chinese metropolises with special reference to Shanghai. Citizenship... more
This paper uses the concept of citizenship in the social sense of membership and the right to an allocation of resources to examine the urban citizenship of migrants in Chinese metropolises with special reference to Shanghai. Citizenship in the Chinese context is interlocked with the household registration (hukou) system instituted more than 50years ago. The paper tracks the changes in