IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v52y2015i16p3086-3105.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Growth of rural migrant enclaves in Guangzhou, China: Agency, everyday practice and social mobility

Author

Listed:
  • Ye Liu

    (Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy, University of Lethbridge, Canada)

  • Zhigang Li

    (Sun Yat-sen University, China)

  • Yuqi Liu

    (University College London, UK)

  • Hongsheng Chen

    (Southeast University, China)

Abstract

Previous studies have attributed the proliferation of rural migrant enclaves in China’s large cities primarily to the constraints limiting migrants’ residential options. Through an ethnographic exploration of Xiaohubei , a migrant enclave with a high concentration of Hubei rural migrants and small-scale garment producers in Guangzhou, this paper sheds new light on the dynamics and implications of the migrant enclaves. It argues that rural migrants are actually active agents who develop a vibrant garment manufacturing cluster by establishing a flexible garment production system, embedding their business within the enclave and maintaining a nationwide translocal network. It also contends that the enclave provides a feasible path through which migrants can achieve social mobility and adapt themselves to the urban environment. This paper concludes with a plea to take into account the agency and everyday practice of rural migrants when understanding the migrant enclaves and a reflection on the existing large-scale and indiscriminate demolition of the enclaves.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:52:y:2015:i:16:p:3086-3105
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098014553752
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098014553752
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098014553752?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. C Cindy Fan & Mingjie Sun & Siqi Zheng, 2011. "Migration and Split Households: A Comparison of Sole, Couple, and Family Migrants in Beijing, China," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(9), pages 2164-2185, September.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Gideon Bolt & Ronald van Kempen & Maarten van Ham, 2008. "Minority Ethnic Groups in the Dutch Housing Market: Spatial Segregation, Relocation Dynamics and Housing Policy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(7), pages 1359-1384, June.
    5. Ya Ping Wang & Yanglin Wang & Jiansheng Wu, 2009. "Urbanization and Informal Development in China: Urban Villages in Shenzhen," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 957-973, December.
    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. Cathy Yang Liu & Lin Ye & Bo Feng, 2019. "Migrant entrepreneurship in China: entrepreneurial transition and firm performance," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 681-696, March.

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Pu Hao & Pieter Hooimeijer & Richard Sliuzas & Stan Geertman, 2013. "What Drives the Spatial Development of Urban Villages in China?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(16), pages 3394-3411, December.
    5. Pan, Wenjian & Du, Juan, 2021. "Towards sustainable urban transition: A critical review of strategies and policies of urban village renewal in Shenzhen, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    6. Hui Fang Cong, 2012. "Urban villagesí Redevelopments in Weihai China: Physical and Social Changes," ERES eres2012_384, European Real Estate Society (ERES).
    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. 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.
    9. Yue Wu & Yi Zhang & Zexu Han & Siyuan Zhang & Xiangyi Li, 2022. "Examining the Planning Policies of Urban Villages Guided by China’s New-Type Urbanization: A Case Study of Hangzhou City," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-25, December.
    10. H Chung, 2018. "Rural migrants in villages-in-the-city in Guangzhou, China: Multi-positionality and negotiated living strategies," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(10), pages 2245-2260, August.
    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. Yue Wu & Yi Zhang, 2022. "Formal and Informal Planning-Dominated Urban Village Development: A Comparative Study of Luojiazhuang and Yangjiapailou in Hangzhou, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-23, April.
    13. Lin Ye, 2011. "Urban regeneration in China: Policy, development, and issues," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 26(5), pages 337-347, August.
    14. Youliang Guo & Chengguo Zhang & Ya Ping Wang & Xun Li, 2018. "(De-)Activating the growth machine for redevelopment: The case of Liede urban village in Guangzhou," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(7), pages 1420-1438, May.
    15. 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.
    16. Lanchih Po, 2012. "Asymmetrical Integration: Public Finance Deprivation in China's Urbanized Villages," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(12), pages 2834-2851, December.
    17. 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.
    18. 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.
    19. Jiang, Yanpeng & Mohabir, Nalini & Ma, Renfeng & Wu, Lichao & Chen, Mingxing, 2020. "Whose village? Stakeholder interests in the urban renewal of Hubei old village in Shenzhen," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    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.

    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:52:y:2015:i:16:p:3086-3105. 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.