Urban villages, their redevelopment and implications for inequality and integration

Wang, Y. P. (2021) Urban villages, their redevelopment and implications for inequality and integration. In: Pryce, G., Wang, Y. P., Chen, Y., Shan, J. and Wei, H. (eds.) Urban Inequality and Segregation in Europe and China: Towards a New Dialogue. Series: The Urban Book Series. Springer: Cham, pp. 99-120. ISBN 9783030745448 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-74544-8_7)

Abstract

Urban villages are a unique product of China’s rapid urban expansion. They provide a new way of life sustained by property rental income for local villagers. More importantly, urban villages provide cheap accommodation for millions of rural migrant workers in most large cities. Recently, with the increasing demand for land by commercial developers and public projects, urban villages have become the targets for redevelopment. This chapter uses a case study village in Beijing as an example to assess the social and economic impacts of urban village redevelopment on both the original local inhabitants and migrants in rented accommodation. The case study village went through a very long and complicated redevelopment process from 2004 to 2017 involving different stages of demolition and relocation. It provided a rare opportunity to evaluate the effects on the local population, both pre- and post-redevelopment. The study involved several field visits, observation and interviews with village residents. It shows that urban village redevelopment offered no positive benefits for migrant workers who often lost their homes to demolition. For local villagers, redevelopment and relocation into new flats may improve their living conditions. However, most suffer from the loss of long-term economic and income generation opportunities. Moreover, the new property rights for the replacement flats confer no additional rights of citizenship for the relocated villagers who remain ‘second-class citizens’ within Chinese cities.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Wang, Professor Ya Ping
• Authors: Wang, Y. P.
• Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General); H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
• Research Group: China/SHLC
• Publisher: Springer
• ISBN: 9783030745448
• Published Online: 17 November 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © The Author(s) 2021
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence

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Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
171992		Urban Development, Migration, Segregation and Inequality	Ya Ping Wang	Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)	ES/N007603/1	S&PS - Urban Studies
302259		Analysing Multi-Dimensional and Multi-Scale Inequalities in Scottish Society	Nema Dean	Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)	ES/P009301/1	M&S - Statistics