The work-unit is dead. Long live the work-unit! Spatial segregation and privilege in a work-unit housing compound in Guangzhou

Through the in-depth study of one State Owned Institution, University S in Guangzhou, this paper argues that China's traditional urban work-units still perform important social and economic functions and are instrumental to both the spatialization of social stratification and to the implementation of a form of governance that owes much to the paternalistic nature of employer-employee relations. The paper is based on both interviews with residents and a survey inside the residential compound. It reveals that the privileges that used to be associated with public urban employment during the Maoist era have not disappeared and that the privilege of public employment extends beyond higher salary and stability and provides important opportunities to exploit the market opportunities offered by the China's recent economic development.