TY - JOUR
T1 - Livelihood adaptation and life satisfaction among land-lost farmers
T2 - Critiquing China’s urbanisation-driven land appropriation
AU - Tong, Weiming
AU - Zhu, Liyuan
AU - Lo, Kevin
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41901202), Zhejiang University of Technology Humanities and Social Sciences Pre-Research, and the China Scholarship Council.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41901202), Zhe-jiang University of Technology Humanities and Social Sciences Pre-Research, and the China Scholarship Council.
PY - 2019/1/1
Y1 - 2019/1/1
N2 - Large-scale rural land appropriation and displacement, driven by the unprecedented urban growth currently experienced in China, has created millions of land-lost peasants who live in the city but remain culturally, socially and institutionally rural. The situation has attracted growing attention in the literature because of its negative social impact, but relatively few studies have addressed how land-lost farmers adapt to urban ways of life and what factors influence their life satisfaction. In this paper, we investigate the predictors of livelihood adaptation and life satisfaction of land-lost farmers from a land appropriation case in the city of Changchun, Northeast China. The results show that, five years after the appropriation, livelihood adaptation remained very difficult and life satisfaction was poor among the resettlers. Furthermore, marginalised groups, such as those who were older, less educated and from smaller families, and those with lower pre-displacement income were less likely to have a higher income level after resettlement, resulting in a lower level of life satisfaction. Women also had lower life satisfaction than men. The study highlights an urgent need to improve China’s unjust land appropriation policy with a particular focus on attending to the needs of marginalised groups.
AB - Large-scale rural land appropriation and displacement, driven by the unprecedented urban growth currently experienced in China, has created millions of land-lost peasants who live in the city but remain culturally, socially and institutionally rural. The situation has attracted growing attention in the literature because of its negative social impact, but relatively few studies have addressed how land-lost farmers adapt to urban ways of life and what factors influence their life satisfaction. In this paper, we investigate the predictors of livelihood adaptation and life satisfaction of land-lost farmers from a land appropriation case in the city of Changchun, Northeast China. The results show that, five years after the appropriation, livelihood adaptation remained very difficult and life satisfaction was poor among the resettlers. Furthermore, marginalised groups, such as those who were older, less educated and from smaller families, and those with lower pre-displacement income were less likely to have a higher income level after resettlement, resulting in a lower level of life satisfaction. Women also had lower life satisfaction than men. The study highlights an urgent need to improve China’s unjust land appropriation policy with a particular focus on attending to the needs of marginalised groups.
KW - China
KW - Land appropriation and displacement
KW - Land-lost farmers
KW - Life satisfaction
KW - Livelihood adaptation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85080086855&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2478/bog-2019-0040
DO - 10.2478/bog-2019-0040
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85080086855
SN - 1732-4254
VL - 46
SP - 149
EP - 161
JO - Bulletin of Geography
JF - Bulletin of Geography
IS - 46
ER -