Urban Village Redevelopment in Beijing, China : New Housing Opportunities for Migrant Workers

The book provides a multi-stage assessment of the changing housing opportunities of migrant workers in the three stages of Beijing’s urban village development (emergence, erasure and preservation). The volume re-theorizes Henry Lefebvre’s notion of the “right to the city” as a largely property-based concept that falls within the city’s hybrid tenure matrix of varying degrees of tenure security and formality that is undergoing entrepreneurialization or gentrification. This is another highly valuable contribution to China studies from the geographical perspective of the “territorial politics” at play in the process of urban village redevelopment, which has fostered a new propertied landowning class as winners, while moving low-wage migrants. The book takes the reader on a fascinating journey from peri-urban villages to IT worker villages to artists’ villages, revealing a restless landscape of urbanism and state-centered governance, as well as bottom-up counterplots. The fieldwork explores the contradictions of urban village redevelopment in Beijing. On the one hand, it is state-dominated and yet creates new housing opportunities for migrants; on the other, it disrupts old orders but also encourages new forms of grassroots alliances. The empirical studies of Beijing’s urban villages enrich Henry Lefebvre’s discourse on “planetary urbanisation,” Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s notion of the “rhizome,” and Elinor Ostrom’s ideas on the wise management of the “commons.” Preface Acknowledgments Contents About the Author Abbreviations Chapter 1: Introduction to Urban Villages and the Enforced Transience of Migrant Workers 1.1 Introduction 1.1.1 Urban Village as Informality 1.1.2 Urban Village as Heterogeneity 1.2 Background: Shifting ``Geography of Opportunity ́ ́ of Migrant Housing in Beijing, China 1.2.1 Urban Village as a Networked and Opportunistic World 1.2.1.1 The Logic of Opportunism Under State Entrepreneurialism 1.2.1.2 Redefining Urban Village in an Open and Mixed Economy 1.2.2 Urban Village as a Contested and Constitutive Space 1.2.2.1 Monopoly Rents in the Digital and Creative Age 1.2.2.2 Urban Village as a Paradox of Autonomy and Commodification 1.2.2.3 Domination of Space Through Continuous Appropriation 1.3 What This Book Is About 1.3.1 Overarching Research Question 1.3.2 Overarching Research Aim 1.3.3 Detailed Questions and Specific Research Objectives 1.3.4 Rationale for the Study 1.4 Research Methods and Contexts 1.4.1 Selection of Beijing as a Case Study City 1.4.2 Research Methods 1.4.2.1 Theoretical Foundations 1.4.2.2 Methodology and Area of Study 1.5 Organization of the Book: The Chapters References Part I: Emerging Urban Village Chapter 2: Emerging Urban Village and Legitimacy Debates: A Supply-Side Institutional Analysis 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Rural Land Development Rights as Peasants ́ Right to the City 2.2.1 Peasants ́ Right to the City 2.2.1.1 Lefebvrian Concept of the Right to the City 2.2.1.2 Peasants ́ Right to the City in the Context of China 2.2.2 State Monopoly on Rural Land Conversion and Transaction 2.2.2.1 Who Is the Rural Landowner? 2.2.2.2 The Ambiguities of Rural Property Rights 2.2.2.3 New Challenges of ``Land Finance ́ ́ and ``Land Financialization ́ ́ 2.3 Peasants ́ Counterplots: Why Do the Authorities Tolerate Such Informal Markets? 2.3.1 Peasants ́ Informal Housing Markets 2.3.1.1 Under-Compensation Based on the Original Farm Use 2.3.1.2 A New Mechanism of Landed ``Surplus Value ́ ́ Sharing 2.3.2 State Tolerance 2.3.2.1 Different Opinions and Policies on Urban Village 2.3.2.2 Policy Change: From Temporary Tolerance to Acceptance 2.3.3 An Institutional Analysis of State Acquiescence 2.3.3.1 Critical Thinking on Informality: From a Formal vs. Informal Dichotomy to the Continuum of (In)Formalization 2.3.3.2 Why Have Studies of Informality Focused on the Dislocation of Local Peasants Rather Than Migrant Tenants? 2.4 Survey of Urban Villages in Haidian District: From State Tolerance to Growth Coalition 2.4.1 Xiaojiahe Urban Village: Informal Rental Housing Market from the Supply Side 2.4.1.1 An Introduction to Xiaojiahe 2.4.1.2 Mechanism of Rental Business in Xiaojiahe 2.4.2 An Ongoing Debate on Land Monopoly and Rental Income Distribution 2.4.2.1 ``Demolition and Relocation ́ ́ or ``Vacating ́ ́?-Policy Debate from 2008 to 2023 to Pacify Land Tensions 2.4.2.2 A Review of ``Land Value as Social Creation ́ ́ References Chapter 3: Resilience of Housing Supply in Urban Villages for Migrant Groups: A Demand Side Investigation 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Tenure Hybridity/Continuum: From the Perspective of Lefebvrian ``Planetary Urbanization ́ ́ 3.2.1 An Overview of Lefebvrian ``Planetary Urbanization ́ ́ 3.2.2 A Need for ``Tenure Continuum ́ ́ Thinking in Our Age of Planetary Urbanization 3.2.3 Different Forms of Informal/Semi-Formal Tenure in a Global Context 3.3 Stratified Citizenship in Tenure Hybridity/Continuum - The Example of Migrant Children ́s Education 3.3.1 ``Points System ́ ́ and the Role of Tenure in it 3.3.2 Educational Policy for Migrant Children in Beijing 3.4 A Tenure Hybridity/Continuum Structure for Migrant Groups in Transitional Beijing 3.4.1 Tenure Hybridity/Continuum: Permanent or Transient? 3.4.2 A Proposed Structure for Tenure Hybridity/Continuum 3.4.3 Why Is Tenure Hybridity/Continuum a Resilient Arrangement in Urban China? 3.5 A Broader Scope of ``Trans-Rural Network ́ ́ for Multi-Site Tenure Strategy Between Village Home and Beijing 3.5.1 A Planetary Thinking on the Trans-Rural Network 3.5.2 The Importance of Rural Land Ownership in Rural-Urban Migration References Part II: Erasing the Urban Village Chapter 4: Urban Village Redevelopment in Beijing 4.1 Introduction: The State ́s Rationale for Urban Village Redevelopment 4.1.1 Dissolution of Patron-Client Relationships in the Urban Village 4.1.2 Beijing Urban Village Redevelopment: Development and Impact 4.2 Survey of Redeveloped Villages in Haidian, Beijing 4.2.1 Background of Haidian Urban Village Redevelopment 4.2.2 Haidian Model () as the Most Symbolic and Representative of Beijing ́s Urban Village Redevelopment 4.2.2.1 The Loss of Migrant Population in Haidian: 2010-2020 4.2.2.2 Property Rights Granted in a Contentious Way 4.2.2.3 Linking Village Redevelopment with the Low-Rent Housing Plan: Limited Transferability of Rural Land Disposal Rights 4.2.3 Survey Methods 4.3 Socio-Spatial Outcomes: Territorial Reconfiguration and Gentrification 4.3.1 Key Actors in the Formalization Process and Their Different Fates 4.3.2 Changes in the Rental Housing Market in the Redeveloped Urban Villages in Haidian District: 2009 to the Present 4.3.3 Haidian Model of Housing the Knowledge Economy 4.3.3.1 Public Housing Schemes in Haidian Redeveloped Villages 4.3.3.2 ``Maker Town ́ ́ in the Vacated Village in Haidian 4.3.3.3 The Village and Township Level High-Tech Parks in Haidian References Chapter 5: Urban Village Sprawl After Demolition in Beijing 5.1 Introduction 5.1.1 The Role of the Urban Village Beyond ``Flexible ́ ́ Social Housing 5.1.2 Urban Villages to House the Knowledge Economy and Its Precarious Workers 5.2 A Review of Government Policies to Control Urban Village Sprawl in Beijing 5.2.1 Management and Demolition of Urban Villages 5.2.2 Changes in the Distribution of Migrant Groups in Beijing: 2000, 2010 and 2020 Census Data 5.3 Four Representative ``Dispersal Routes ́ ́ for Migrant Tenants Following the ``Dispersal Policy ́ ́ in Beijing 5.3.1 Dongxiaokou (Haidian-Changping-Chaoyang Interface): From the Largest Garbage Dumps to Urban Forest Parks 5.3.2 Dispersion of Migrant Garment Manufacturing and Wholesale Workers: From Fengtai to Daxing and Then to Hebei 5.3.3 Disappearance of Cuigezhuang Art Clans (near the 798 Art District) and Re-gathering of Dispersed Artists in Songzhuang 5.3.4 Shigezhuang Village in Huilongguan (Haidian-Changping Interface) as an Emerging Giant ``Ant Tribe ́ ́ Area 5.4 A Case Study of New Housing Opportunities for IT Workers during Urban Village Sprawl from Haidian to Changping 5.4.1 Why Did IT Workers Choose to Live in Urban Villages? 5.4.2 A Comparative Study to Track the Mobility of IT Workers 5.4.3 How Have Migrant Tenants Responded to Demolition? References Part III: Preserving the Urban Village Chapter 6: Grassroots in Incremental Village Redevelopment: New Opportunities for Migrants in the Commons 6.1 Introduction: Logics of Urban Village Redevelopment-Commodification vs. Reciprocity in the Commons 6.1.1 Urban Village as Commons 6.1.2 Logic of Opportunism in the Ambiguities of Collectively Owned Rural Land 6.1.2.1 Analyzing Urban Villages in Unitary CPR Settings 6.1.2.2 Property Rights Scheme in Urban Village CPRs 6.1.2.3 The Political Economy of Monopolistic Control in the CPRs 6.2 Coevolving and Unitary Formality-Informality for the Production of Urban Villages in Metropolises 6.2.1 Urban Village as Peri-Urban Mosaic in Constantly Unresolved Tensions 6.2.2 Urban Village as a Formal-Informal Mix in Micro-adaptation Processes 6.2.3 Case Study of a Garbage Dumping Village (Banjieta Village ) in Dongxiaokou Town, Changping District 6.2.3.1 Informality Within Formality: Case Study of a State-Initiated Megaproject Negotiation in Taipingzhuang (太) 6.2.3.2 Formality Within Informality: Case Study of an Exclusive Villa in Banjieta Urban Village () as Dumping Site 6.3 Issues of Rent Seeking, Appropriation and Provision in the Incremental Modes of Artists ́ and IT Workers ́ Villages 6.3.1 Urban Village as ``Semicommons ́ ́ for Migrant Creative Workers 6.3.2 Urban Village as a Porous Space or Interstice for Grassroots Rent Appropriation 6.3.3 Surveys on Heiqiao Art Village () and Shigezhuang IT Ant Tribe () in the Creative Economy 6.3.3.1 A Vanishing Heiqiao Art Village: An Oasis and a Mirage 6.3.3.2 Shigezhuang IT Worker Village: Shifting Between State and Market References Chapter 7: Conclusion: Prospects for a Communal but Contested World-New Opportunities for the Urban Village 7.1 Summary of Findings 7.2 Originality of This Book 7.3 New Opportunities and Future Prospects: Dialogue with Comparative Urbanism References Index