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Agency and social construction of space under top-down planning: Resettled rural residents in China

Author

Listed:
  • Min Zhang

    (Nanjing University, China)

  • Weiping Wu

    (Columbia University, USA)

  • Weijing Zhong

    (Nanjing University and Urban Planning Institute of Hangzhou, China)

Abstract

Resettled rural communities are a product of China’s rapid urbanisation and associated top-down planning. For local governments, relocating farmers from natural villages into new, concentrated residential neighbourhoods serves the dual purpose of implementing national directives on farmland conservation and integrated urban–rural planning. For resettled residents, however, the transition process is fraught with livelihood, social and cultural contest. This paper explores how such residents in a Chinese city, Zhenjiang, exercise agency to reconstruct community and public space in their new neighbourhood. Keeping alive patterns and practice of thoughts acquired during their rural lives, habitus , resettled residents have deployed their new spatial situation in creative ways. Pre-existing social fabric and mutual benefit-sharing provide the foundation for spatial adaptation and transformation, allowing residents to achieve a sense of normalcy or even to recreate village life. Theoretically, our analysis highlights the importance of situating spatial agency within the context of shifting regime of property rights and its effect on the maintenance of habitus .

Suggested Citation

  • Min Zhang & Weiping Wu & Weijing Zhong, 2018. "Agency and social construction of space under top-down planning: Resettled rural residents in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(7), pages 1541-1560, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:55:y:2018:i:7:p:1541-1560
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098017715409
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Yanbo Qu & Xiaozhen Dong & Lingyun Zhan & Weiya Zhu & Sen Wang & Zongli Ping & Bailin Zhang, 2022. "Achieving rural revitalization in China: A suitable framework to understand the coordination of material and social space quality of rural residential areas in the plain," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 1052-1081, September.
    2. Xu, Haiyun & Meng, Miao & Zhu, Fangyu & Ding, Qi, 2024. "The role of local officials in promoting public participation during local urban planning processes: Evidence from Chinese cities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    3. Maolong Chen & Shurong Yao & Chaoran Hu & Songqing Jin, 2023. "Transfer or retain land development right: The role of China’s IDB programme in supporting inclusive urbanisation," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(13), pages 2651-2668, October.
    4. Xuesong Xi & Haiyun Xu & Qiang Zhao & Guohan Zhao, 2021. "Making Rural Micro-Regeneration Strategies Based on Resident Perceptions and Preferences for Traditional Village Conservation and Development: The Case of Huangshan Village, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-24, July.
    5. Zheng Wang, 2022. "LIFE AFTER RESETTLEMENT IN URBAN CHINA: State‐led Community Building as a Reterritorialization Strategy," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 424-440, May.
    6. 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.
    7. Yang, Chen & Qian, Zhu, 2022. "The complexity of property rights embedded in the rural-to-urban resettlement of China: A case of Hangzhou," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    8. John R Logan, 2018. "People and plans in urbanising China: Challenging the top-down orthodoxy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(7), pages 1375-1382, May.
    9. Huimin Du & Jing Song & Si-ming Li, 2021. "‘Peasants are peasants’: Prejudice against displaced villagers in newly-built urban neighbourhoods in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(8), pages 1598-1614, June.
    10. Kexi Xu & Hui Gao & Jieyu Su & Haijun Bao & Bingqian Zhan & Chun Jiang & Liuzhao Chen, 2022. "Accommodation and Avoidance: Functional Conflict Theory (FCT)-Based Governance Logic of Resettled Community Conflict in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-21, October.
    11. Huan Yang & Ling Qiu & Xin Fu, 2021. "Toward Cultural Heritage Sustainability through Participatory Planning Based on Investigation of the Value Perceptions and Preservation Attitudes: Qing Mu Chuan, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-14, January.
    12. Alan Smart, 2018. "Ethnographic perspectives on the mediation of informality between people and plans in urbanising China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(7), pages 1477-1483, May.
    13. Fulong Wu, 2018. "Planning centrality, market instruments: Governing Chinese urban transformation under state entrepreneurialism," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(7), pages 1383-1399, May.

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