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Economic transition and speculative urbanisation in China: gentrification versus dispossession

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  • Shin, Hyun Bang

Abstract

Gentrification requires properties to be available for investment through market transactions. In mainland China which has gone through transition from a planned to a market economy, it is necessary to unleash decommodified real estate properties and make them amenable to investment. This entails inhabitants’ dispossession to dissociate them from claiming their rights to the properties and to their neighbourhoods. This paper argues that while China’s urban accumulation may have produced new-build gentrification, redevelopment projects have been targeting dilapidated urban spaces that are yet to be fully converted into commodities. This means that dispossession is a precursor to gentrification. Dispossession occurs through both coercion and co-optation, and reflects the pathdependency of China’s socialist legacy. The findings contribute to the debates on contextualising the workings of gentrification in the global South, and highlight the importance of identifying multiple urban processes at work to produce gentrification and speculative urban accumulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Shin, Hyun Bang, 2016. "Economic transition and speculative urbanisation in China: gentrification versus dispossession," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 62608, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:62608
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/62608/
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    1. Ahmad H. Juma’h & Doris Morales-Rodriguez & Antonio Lloréns-Rivera, 2015. "A Global Perspective," SpringerBriefs in Economics, in: Labor Markets and Multinational Enterprises in Puerto Rico, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 49-55, Springer.
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    Cited by:

    1. Shenjing He & Junxi Qian, 2017. "From an emerging market to a multifaceted urban society: Urban China studies," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(4), pages 827-846, March.
    2. Karita Kan, 2019. "Accumulation without Dispossession? Land Commodification and Rent Extraction in Peri‐urban China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 633-648, July.
    3. Komatsu, Sho & Suzuki, Aya, 2021. "The Impact of Rural E-Commerce Development on Rural Income and Urban-Rural Income Inequality in China: A Panel Data Analysis," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315050, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Daniel You-Ren Yang & Jung-Che Chang, 2018. "Financialising space through transferable development rights: Urban renewal, Taipei style," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(9), pages 1943-1966, July.
    5. Tom Gillespie, 2020. "The Real Estate Frontier," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 599-616, July.
    6. Qinran Yang & David Ley, 2019. "Residential relocation and the remaking of socialist workers through state-facilitated urban redevelopment in Chengdu, China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(12), pages 2480-2498, September.
    7. Ray Forrest, 2016. "Commentary: Variegated gentrification?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(3), pages 609-614, February.
    8. Hyun Bang Shin & Loretta Lees & Ernesto López-Morales, 2016. "Introduction: Locating gentrification in the Global East," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(3), pages 455-470, February.
    9. Lun Liu & Elisabete A Silva & Ying Long, 2019. "Block-level changes in the socio-spatial landscape in Beijing: Trends and processes," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(6), pages 1198-1214, May.
    10. MA Xinxin & KOMATSU Sho, 2023. "Impact of E-commerce Development on Income Inequality: Evidence from rural China based on cross-county panel data," Discussion papers 23044, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    11. Paul Waley, 2016. "Speaking gentrification in the languages of the Global East," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(3), pages 615-625, February.
    12. Fan Wu & Ling-Hin Li & Sue Yurim Han, 2018. "Social Sustainability and Redevelopment of Urban Villages in China: A Case Study of Guangzhou," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-18, June.
    13. Fulong Wu, 2020. "Adding new narratives to the urban imagination: An introduction to ‘New directions of urban studies in China’," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(3), pages 459-472, February.
    14. Yongshen Liu & Yung Yau, 2020. "Urban Entrepreneurialism Vs Market Society: The Geography of China's Neoliberal Urbanism," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 266-288, March.
    15. Lili Li & Yiwu Zeng & Zi Ye & Hongdong Guo, 2021. "E‐commerce development and urban‐rural income gap: Evidence from Zhejiang Province, China," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(2), pages 475-494, April.
    16. Qiyan Wu & Xiaoling Zhang & Paul Waley, 2016. "Jiaoyufication: When gentrification goes to school in the Chinese inner city," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(16), pages 3510-3526, December.
    17. Jesse Rodenbiker, 2020. "Urban Ecological Enclosures: Conservation Planning, Peri‐urban Displacement, and Local State Formations in China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 691-710, July.
    18. Emine Yetiskul & Sule Demirel, 2018. "Assembling gentrification in Istanbul: The Cihangir neighbourhood of BeyoÄŸlu," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(15), pages 3336-3352, November.
    19. Qing Yang & Yan Song & Yinying Cai, 2020. "Blending Bottom-Up and Top-Down Urban Village Redevelopment Modes: Comparing Multidimensional Welfare Changes of Resettled Households in Wuhan, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-23, September.
    20. Helga Leitner & Eric Sheppard, 2023. "Unleashing speculative urbanism: Speculation and urban transformations," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(2), pages 359-366, March.
    21. Fulong Wu, 2020. "Scripting Indian and Chinese urban spatial transformation: Adding new narratives to gentrification and suburbanisation research," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 38(6), pages 980-997, September.
    22. Karita Kan, 2020. "The social politics of dispossession: Informal institutions and land expropriation in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(16), pages 3331-3346, December.
    23. Yi Jin, 2022. "Urban Verticality Shaped by a Vertical Terrain: Lessons From Chongqing, China," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 364-376.
    24. Ju Tjung Liong & Helga Leitner & Eric Sheppard & Suryono Herlambang & Wahyu Astuti, 2020. "Space Grabs: Colonizing the Vertical City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(6), pages 1072-1082, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gentrification; dispossession; economic transition; speculative urbanisation; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General

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