IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v50y2013i10p1919-1934.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Informality and the Development and Demolition of Urban Villages in the Chinese Peri-urban Area

Author

Listed:
  • Fulong Wu
  • Fangzhu Zhang
  • Chris Webster

Abstract

The fate of Chinese urban villages ( chengzhongcun ) has recently attracted both research and policy attention. Two important unaddressed questions are: what are the sources of informality in otherwise orderly Chinese cities; and, will village redevelopment policy eliminate informality in the Chinese city? Reflecting on the long-established study of informal settlements and recent research on informality, it is argued that the informality in China has been created by the dual urban–rural land market and land management system and by an underprovision of migrant housing. The redevelopment of chengzhongcun is an attempt to eliminate this informality and to create more governable spaces through formal land development; but since it fails to tackle the root demand for unregulated living and working space, village redevelopment only leads to the replication of informality in more remote rural villages, in other urban neighbourhoods and, to some extent, in the redeveloped neighbourhoods.

Suggested Citation

  • Fulong Wu & Fangzhu Zhang & Chris Webster, 2013. "Informality and the Development and Demolition of Urban Villages in the Chinese Peri-urban Area," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(10), pages 1919-1934, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:50:y:2013:i:10:p:1919-1934
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098012466600
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098012466600
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098012466600?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. Marie Huchzermeyer, 2003. "A legacy of control? The capital subsidy for housing, and informal settlement intervention in South Africa," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 591-612, September.
    2. Ananya Roy, 2009. "The 21st-Century Metropolis: New Geographies of Theory," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(6), pages 819-830.
    3. Alan Gilbert, 2007. "The Return of the Slum: Does Language Matter?," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 697-713, December.
    4. Jan Nijman, 2010. "A Study Of Space In Mumbai'S Slums," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 101(1), pages 4-17, February.
    5. Li Tian, 2008. "The Chengzhongcun Land Market in China: Boon or Bane? — A Perspective on Property Rights," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 282-304, June.
    6. Fulong Wu, 2004. "Urban poverty and marginalization under market transition: the case of Chinese cities," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 401-423, June.
    7. Yan Song & Yves Zenou & Chengri Ding, 2008. "Let's Not Throw the Baby Out with the Bath Water: The Role of Urban Villages in Housing Rural Migrants in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(2), pages 313-330, February.
    8. Jean‐Louis Van Gelder, 2009. "Legal Tenure Security, Perceived Tenure Security and Housing Improvement in Buenos Aires: An Attempt towards Integration," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 126-146, March.
    9. Chris Webster & Lawrence W.-C. Lai, 2003. "Property Rights, Planning and Markets," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2625.
    10. Ann Varley, 2002. "Private or public: debating the meaning of tenure legalization," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 449-461, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Daquan Huang & Yuncheng Huang & Xingshuo Zhao & Zhen Liu, 2017. "How Do Differences in Land Ownership Types in China Affect Land Development? A Case from Beijing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-18, January.
    2. Rongyu Wang & Rong Tan, 2018. "Rural Renewal of China in the Context of Rural-Urban Integration: Governance Fit and Performance Differences," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-22, February.
    3. Dror Kochan, 2015. "Placing the Urban Village: A Spatial Perspective on the Development Process of Urban Villages in Contemporary China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 927-947, September.
    4. Webster, Chris & Wu, Fulong & Zhang, Fangzhu & Sarkar, Chinmoy, 2016. "Informality, property rights, and poverty in China’s “favelas”," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 461-476.
    5. Pengjun Zhao & Mengzhu Zhang, 2016. "The Role of Villages and Townships in Informal Land Development in China: An Investigation on the City Fringe of Beijing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-21, March.
    6. Li Huang & Shougeng Hu & Shixiang Li & Zhenqi Fu, 2019. "Nonmarketization Bargaining and Actual Compensation Level for Land Requisition: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of China’s Land Requisition Conflict Events," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-24, November.
    7. Dinghuan Yuan & Yung Yau & Haijun Bao & Yongshen Liu & Ting Liu, 2019. "Anatomizing the Institutional Arrangements of Urban Village Redevelopment: Case Studies in Guangzhou, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-16, June.
    8. Kexi Xu & Geoffrey Qiping Shen & Guiwen Liu & Igor Martek, 2019. "Demolition of Existing Buildings in Urban Renewal Projects: A Decision Support System in the China Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-22, January.

    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. Webster, Chris & Wu, Fulong & Zhang, Fangzhu & Sarkar, Chinmoy, 2016. "Informality, property rights, and poverty in China’s “favelas”," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 461-476.
    2. Fulong Wu, 2009. "Land Development, Inequality and Urban Villages in China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 885-889, December.
    3. Monika Streule & Ozan Karaman & Lindsay Sawyer & Christian Schmid, 2020. "Popular Urbanization: Conceptualizing Urbanization Processes Beyond Informality," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 652-672, July.
    4. Azunre, Gideon Abagna & Amponsah, Owusu & Takyi, Stephen Appiah & Mensah, Henry & Braimah, Imoro, 2022. "Urban informalities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): A solution for or barrier against sustainable city development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    5. Lin Jiang & Yani Lai & Ke Chen & Xiao Tang, 2022. "What Drives Urban Village Redevelopment in China? A Survey of Literature Based on Web of Science Core Collection Database," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-16, April.
    6. Mengzhu Zhang & Shenjing He, 2020. "Informal Property Rights as Relational and Functional: Unravelling the Relational Contract in China's Informal Housing Market," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(6), pages 967-988, November.
    7. Zachary Levenson, 2018. "The road to TRAs is paved with good intentions: Dispossession through delivery in post-apartheid Cape Town," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(14), pages 3218-3233, November.
    8. Andrew Harris, 2012. "The Metonymic Urbanism of Twenty-first-century Mumbai," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(13), pages 2955-2973, October.
    9. Flower, Benjamin C.R. & Ganepola, Piyal & Popuri, Srinivasa & Turkstra, Jan, 2023. "Securing tenure for conflict-affected populations: A case study of land titling and fit-for-purpose land administration in post-conflict Sri Lanka," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    10. Pengyu Zhu, 2016. "Residential segregation and employment outcomes of rural migrant workers in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(8), pages 1635-1656, June.
    11. Pu Hao & Stan Geertman & Pieter Hooimeijer & Richard Sliuzas, 2012. "The Land-Use Diversity in Urban Villages in Shenzhen," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(11), pages 2742-2764, November.
    12. Jennifer Robinson, 2016. "Comparative Urbanism: New Geographies and Cultures of Theorizing the Urban," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 187-199, January.
    13. Ye Liu & Zhigang Li & Yuqi Liu & Hongsheng Chen, 2015. "Growth of rural migrant enclaves in Guangzhou, China: Agency, everyday practice and social mobility," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(16), pages 3086-3105, December.
    14. Eddie Chi Man Hui & Ka Hung Yu & Yinchuan Ye, 2014. "Housing Preferences of Temporary Migrants in Urban China in the wake of Gradual Hukou Reform: A Case Study of Shenzhen," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 1384-1398, July.
    15. Yani Lai & Edwin Hon Wan Chan & Lennon Choy, 2017. "Village-led land development under state-led institutional arrangements in urbanising China: The case of Shenzhen," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(7), pages 1736-1759, May.
    16. Li Tian & Xu Guo & Wei Yin, 2017. "From urban sprawl to land consolidation in suburban Shanghai under the backdrop of increasing versus decreasing balance policy: A perspective of property rights transfer," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(4), pages 878-896, March.
    17. Lanchih Po, 2012. "Asymmetrical Integration: Public Finance Deprivation in China's Urbanized Villages," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(12), pages 2834-2851, December.
    18. Keying Han & Shitai Bao & Meixuan She & Qixin Pan & Yina Liu & Biao Chen, 2023. "Exploration of Intelligent Building Planning for Urban Renewal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-17, March.
    19. 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.
    20. Junxi Qian & Shenjing He, 2012. "Rethinking Social Power and the Right to the City Amidst China's Emerging Urbanism," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(12), pages 2801-2816, December.

    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:urbstu:v:50:y:2013:i:10:p:1919-1934. 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: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    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.