TY - JOUR
T1 - Official relocation and self-help development
T2 - Three housing strategies under ambiguous property rights in China’s rural land development
AU - Song, Jing
N1 - Funding Information:
This paper is based upon work supported by the Hong Kong Baptist University Faculty Research Grant, the National Science Foundation (Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant) and Beatrice and Joseph Feinberg Memorial Fund.
PY - 2015/1/20
Y1 - 2015/1/20
N2 - The recent trend to develop rural land in western China has resulted in the large-scale relocation of villagers. It has also given rise to self-help development of housing. By examining long-established research on both formal urban development and informal village settlements, this study examines self-built housing, collective-endorsed housing and urban relocation housing in one western Chinese village. Their coexistence was made possible by ambiguities in property rights. The state–collective divide and the urban–rural dichotomy in property rights were restructured in land development, and villagers were able to use various means to take advantage of transitional, favourable deals to gain short- or long-term returns. Specifically, self-developed housing met market demands and traditional lifestyles, but witnessed a gap between de jure and de facto property rights and could not be easily formalised, whereas officially sanctioned relocation provided long-term homeownership but with ambiguous de jure property rights and failed to fully integrate villagers into urban neighbourhoods. To a lesser extent, collective endorsement added to the legitimacy of self-help development.
AB - The recent trend to develop rural land in western China has resulted in the large-scale relocation of villagers. It has also given rise to self-help development of housing. By examining long-established research on both formal urban development and informal village settlements, this study examines self-built housing, collective-endorsed housing and urban relocation housing in one western Chinese village. Their coexistence was made possible by ambiguities in property rights. The state–collective divide and the urban–rural dichotomy in property rights were restructured in land development, and villagers were able to use various means to take advantage of transitional, favourable deals to gain short- or long-term returns. Specifically, self-developed housing met market demands and traditional lifestyles, but witnessed a gap between de jure and de facto property rights and could not be easily formalised, whereas officially sanctioned relocation provided long-term homeownership but with ambiguous de jure property rights and failed to fully integrate villagers into urban neighbourhoods. To a lesser extent, collective endorsement added to the legitimacy of self-help development.
KW - China
KW - housing
KW - official relocation
KW - property rights
KW - self-help development
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84910659658&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0042098014524612
DO - 10.1177/0042098014524612
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84910659658
SN - 0042-0980
VL - 52
SP - 121
EP - 137
JO - Urban Studies
JF - Urban Studies
IS - 1
ER -