IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/loceco/v27y2012i4p373-387.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Working with the homeless: The case of a non-profit organisation in Shanghai

Author

Listed:
  • Heather Xiaoquan Zhang
  • Jimmy McWhinney

Abstract

This article addresses a two-pronged objective, namely to bring to the fore a much neglected social issue of homelessness, and to explore the dynamics of state-society relations in contemporary China, through a case study of a non-profit organisation (NPO) working with the homeless in Shanghai. It shows that the largely invisible homelessness in Chinese cities was substantially due to exclusionary institutions, such as the combined household registration and ‘detention and deportation’ systems. Official policy has become much more supportive since 2003 when the latter was replaced with government-run shelters, but we argue that the NPO case demonstrates the potential for enhanced longer-term support and enabling active citizenship for homeless people. By analysing the ways in which the NPO offers services through collaboration and partnership with the public (and private) actors, we also argue that the transformations in post-reform China and the changes within the state and civil society have significantly blurred their boundaries, rendering state-society relations much more complex, dynamic, fluid and mutually embedded.

Suggested Citation

  • Heather Xiaoquan Zhang & Jimmy McWhinney, 2012. "Working with the homeless: The case of a non-profit organisation in Shanghai," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 27(4), pages 373-387, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:loceco:v:27:y:2012:i:4:p:373-387
    DOI: 10.1177/0269094212437011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0269094212437011
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0269094212437011?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. Hein Mallee, 1995. "China's Household Registration System under Reform," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 26(1), pages 1-29, January.
    2. Suzanne Speak & Graham Tipple, 2006. "Perceptions, Persecution and Pity: The Limitations of Interventions for Homelessness in Developing Countries," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 172-188, March.
    3. Lam, Debbie & Cheng, Fucai, 2008. "Chinese policy reaction to the problem of street children: An analysis from the perspective of street children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 575-584, May.
    4. Heather Xiaoquan Zhang, 1999. "Female Migration and Urban Labour Markets in Tianjin," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 30(1), pages 21-41, 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. Alan de Brauw & John Giles, 2017. "Migrant Opportunity and the Educational Attainment of Youth in Rural China," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(1), pages 272-311.
    2. Garrett, James, 2004. "Living life," FCND discussion papers 171, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Lohmar, Bryan & Rozelle, Scott & Zhao, Changbao, 2000. "The Rise Of Rural-To-Rural Labor Markets In China," Working Papers 11955, University of California, Davis, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    4. Afridi, Farzana & Li, Sherry Xin & Ren, Yufei, 2015. "Social identity and inequality: The impact of China's hukou system," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 17-29.
    5. Shahraki, Saeed Zanganeh & Fouladiyan, Majid & Toosifar, Jamal, 2020. "Child labor processes in the city of Mashhad: A narrative study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    6. Berckmans, Isabel & Velasco, Marcela Losantos & Tapia, Bismarck Pinto & Loots, Gerrit, 2012. "A systematic review: A quest for effective interventions for children and adolescents in street situation," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1259-1272.
    7. Slesnick, Natasha & Dashora, Pushpanjali & Letcher, Amber & Erdem, Gizem & Serovich, Julianne, 2009. "A review of services and interventions for runaway and homeless youth: Moving forward," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 732-742, July.
    8. Alan de Brauw & John Giles, 2018. "Migrant Labor Markets and the Welfare of Rural Households in the Developing World: Evidence from China," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 32(1), pages 1-18.
    9. Syed Masud Ahmed & Qazi Shafayetul Islam & Shamim Hossain & Md. Kamruzzaman & Antora Mahmud Khan, 2011. "Lives and Livelihoods on the Streets of Dhaka City: Findings from a Population-based Exploratory Survey," Working Papers id:4310, eSocialSciences.
    10. Harris, Melissa S. & Johnson, Knowlton & Young, Linda & Edwards, Jessica, 2011. "Community reinsertion success of street children programs in Brazil and Peru," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 723-731, May.
    11. Marie T. Ruel & James L. Garrett, 2004. "Features of Urban Food and Nutrition Security and Considerations for Successful Urban Programming," The Electronic Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, vol. 1(2), pages 242-271.
    12. Wei Xu & Kok-Chiang Tan & Guixin Wang, 2006. "Segmented Local Labor Markets in Postreform China: Gender Earnings Inequality in the Case of Two Towns in Zhejiang Province," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 38(1), pages 85-109, January.
    13. Wei, Yanning & Gong, Yue, 2019. "Understanding Chinese rural-to-urban migrant children’s education predicament: A dual system perspective," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1-1.
    14. Gao, Yunjiao & Atkinson-Sheppard, Sally & Yu, Yanping & Xiong, Guibin, 2018. "A review of the national policies on street children in China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 79-87.

    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:loceco:v:27:y:2012:i:4:p:373-387. 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.lsbu.ac.uk/index.shtml .

    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.