IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v43y2011i5p1135-1153.html

Privatization, Marketization, and Deprivation: Interpreting the Homeownership Paradox in Postreform Urban China

Author

Listed:
  • Guo Chen

    (Department of Geography and Global Urban Studies Program, Michigan State University, 211 Geography Building, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA)

Abstract

The paper examines the nature of the housing predicaments faced by China's urban poor since the advent of pro-ownership housing marketization in the 1990s. It is argued that housing deprivation in today's urban China is a complex problem which is difficult to disentangle based solely on the material outcomes of housing distribution and housing inequalities. Therefore, an integrative framework is proposed to examine the issue from the perspective of structure–agency interaction. Statistical methods are employed to identify the concrete market and nonmarket factors which constrain the housing decisions of Nanjing's poor families, based on census and household-survey data. Qualitative interviews are then utilized to help reconstruct and interpret different storylines of homeownership transition under the identified constraints. Findings suggest that the ownership-based housing model has been promoted among the poor in exploitative ways, which has resulted in profound deprivation—for both poor owners and nonowners. Alternative, nonownership housing options are urgently needed to address the problem.

Suggested Citation

  • Guo Chen, 2011. "Privatization, Marketization, and Deprivation: Interpreting the Homeownership Paradox in Postreform Urban China," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(5), pages 1135-1153, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:43:y:2011:i:5:p:1135-1153
    DOI: 10.1068/a43444
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a43444
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a43444?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fulong Wu & Shenjing He, 2005. "Changes In Traditional Urban Areas And Impacts Of Urban Redevelopment: A Case Study Of Three Neighbourhoods In Nanjing, China," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 96(1), pages 75-95, February.
    2. Xiaogang Wu & Donald Treiman, 2004. "The household registration system and social stratification in China: 1955–1996," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 41(2), pages 363-384, May.
    3. Donggen Wang & Si-Ming Li, 2004. "Housing Preferences in a Transitional Housing System: The Case of Beijing, China," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(1), pages 69-87, January.
    4. Moser, Caroline O. N., 1998. "The asset vulnerability framework: Reassessing urban poverty reduction strategies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 1-19, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Langyintuo, Augustine S. & Mungoma, Catherine, 2008. "The effect of household wealth on the adoption of improved maize varieties in Zambia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 550-559, December.
    2. Donggen Wang & Jiukun Li & Harry Timmermans, 2004. "Measuring Bifurcation Points in Choice Behavior: Principles and Illustration," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(6), pages 1125-1138, June.
    3. Janz, Teresa & Augsburg, Britta & Gassmann, Franziska & Nimeh, Zina, 2023. "Leaving no one behind: Urban poverty traps in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    4. Jon D. Unruh, 2008. "Toward sustainable livelihoods after war: Reconstituting rural land tenure systems," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 32(2), pages 103-115, May.
    5. Carlos de la Espriella, 2009. "A Technique for Small-area Poverty Analyses," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(11), pages 2399-2421, October.
    6. Feng Shi & Weiwei Cao & Runhua Huang & Wei Geng, 2025. "Spatially heterogeneous drivers of hukou transfer intentions in China: a geographically weighted logistic regression analysis," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 74(2), pages 1-30, June.
    7. Shige Song, 2013. "Prenatal malnutrition and subsequent foetal loss risk: Evidence from the 1959-1961 Chinese famine," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 29(26), pages 707-728.
    8. Nicola Banks, 2016. "Livelihoods Limitations: The Political Economy of Urban Poverty in Dhaka, Bangladesh," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 47(2), pages 266-292, March.
    9. Yong Cai, 2010. "China's Below‐Replacement Fertility: Government Policy or Socioeconomic Development?," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 36(3), pages 419-440, September.
    10. Jun-Qing Wu & Ke-Wei Wang & Rui Zhao & Yu-Yan Li & Ying Zhou & Yi-Ran Li & Hong-Lei Ji & Ming Ji, 2014. "Male Rural-to-Urban Migrants and Risky Sexual Behavior: A Cross-Sectional Study in Shanghai, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-19, March.
    11. Ellis, Frank & Bahiigwa, Godfrey, 2003. "Livelihoods and Rural Poverty Reduction in Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 997-1013, June.
    12. Francesca Marchetta, 2011. "On the Move Livelihood Strategies in Northern Ghana," CERDI Working papers halshs-00591137, HAL.
    13. BΘnΘ, C. & Russell, A.J.M., 2007. "Diagnostic study of the Volta Basin fisheries: Part 2 Livelihoods and poverty analysis, current trends and projections," Monographs, The WorldFish Center, number 38823, April.
    14. Paul Mosley & Robert Holzmann & Steen Jorgensen, 1999. "Social protection as social risk management: conceptual underpinnings for the social protection sector strategy paper," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(7), pages 1005-1027.
    15. Zheng Wang & Jie Shen & Xiang Luo, 2023. "Can residents regain their community relations after resettlement? Insights from Shanghai," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(5), pages 962-980, April.
    16. Jianjun Huai, 2016. "Role of Livelihood Capital in Reducing Climatic Vulnerability: Insights of Australian Wheat from 1990–2010," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-18, March.
    17. Bingdao Zheng & Yanfeng Gu, 2022. "Institutional dynamics and access to non‐farm employment in rural China, 1950–1996," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(3), pages 265-289, November.
    18. Yue Sun & Liqiu Zhao & Zhong Zhao, 2025. "Hukou Status and Children’s Education in China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73(2), pages 979-1021.
    19. Hou, Benyufang & Liu, Hong & Wang, Sophie Xuefei, 2020. "Returns to military service in off-farm wage employment: Evidence from rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    20. Shiyao Zhu & Dezhi Li & Haibo Feng & Tiantian Gu & Jiawei Zhu, 2019. "AHP-TOPSIS-Based Evaluation of the Relative Performance of Multiple Neighborhood Renewal Projects: A Case Study in Nanjing, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-17, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:43:y:2011:i:5:p:1135-1153. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.