TY - JOUR
T1 - Not Rural but Not Urban
T2 - Community Governance in China's Urban Villages
AU - Tang, Beibei
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 The China Quarterly.
PY - 2015/9/7
Y1 - 2015/9/7
N2 - China's urbanization has created a large number of urban villages which, although they have been transferred to urban administration, have maintained their collective economies. Using a comparative perspective, this article investigates how villagers, the village collectives and the urban administration organize community governance in three urban villages on the fringes of the cities of Guangzhou, Wuhan and Shenyang. The findings suggest that successful village collective shareholding companies play a leading role in community governance by providing villagers with economic and social welfare, subsidizing community administration services, and mobilizing residents. The comparative analysis also shows that village shareholding companies employ different mechanisms based on the varied histories of their village collective economies, the ability of the village collectives to mobilize resources, and the degree to which the village collectives are engaged in the grassroots administrative structure. The article argues that the "not rural but not urban" governance mode of the urban villages illustrates China's fragmented urbanization planning. At the same time, it illuminates the dynamics of state-society relations during China's urbanization and how landless villagers and village collectives respond to urban transformation by adopting different strategies to preserve their individual and collective interests.
AB - China's urbanization has created a large number of urban villages which, although they have been transferred to urban administration, have maintained their collective economies. Using a comparative perspective, this article investigates how villagers, the village collectives and the urban administration organize community governance in three urban villages on the fringes of the cities of Guangzhou, Wuhan and Shenyang. The findings suggest that successful village collective shareholding companies play a leading role in community governance by providing villagers with economic and social welfare, subsidizing community administration services, and mobilizing residents. The comparative analysis also shows that village shareholding companies employ different mechanisms based on the varied histories of their village collective economies, the ability of the village collectives to mobilize resources, and the degree to which the village collectives are engaged in the grassroots administrative structure. The article argues that the "not rural but not urban" governance mode of the urban villages illustrates China's fragmented urbanization planning. At the same time, it illuminates the dynamics of state-society relations during China's urbanization and how landless villagers and village collectives respond to urban transformation by adopting different strategies to preserve their individual and collective interests.
KW - Community governance
KW - collective shareholding companies
KW - shequ
KW - urban villages
KW - urbanization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84940955736&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0305741015000843
DO - 10.1017/S0305741015000843
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84940955736
SN - 0305-7410
VL - 223
SP - 724
EP - 744
JO - China Quarterly
JF - China Quarterly
ER -