Impacts of Chinese Urbanization on Farmers’ Social Networks: Evidence from the Urbanization Led by Farmland Requisition in Shanghai
Publication: Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 142, Issue 2
Abstract
Following rapid urban expansion, numerous rural villages have been requisitioned for urban development in Chinese cities. During the prevailing urbanization process, displaced farmers within a village are wholly relocated into an urban resettlement housing district in transitional China. This study aims to examine whether those farmers still retain previous widespread and dense social networks in urban environment. The study is primarily a case study in Shanghai; data were obtained through semistructured interviews, questionnaire survey and field observations. The findings show that the urbanization process led by farmland requisition gives rise to four major shifts, which include residence shift from farmhouses to urban apartments, household registration identity shift from peasantry to urbanites, occupation shift from farming to nonfarming jobs, and resident structure shift from single village to multiple sources. Such sociospatial changes have transformed the basis and number of social ties, frequency and places of social contact, assistance available from social networks, and willingness for more social contact. It can be concluded that the vibrant and cohesive rural communities with densely interactive social networks have gradually dissolved in the urban environment during the resettlement from rural villages to urban housing districts.
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Acknowledgments
The research reported in this paper is supported by the Humanity and Social Science Youth Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (14YJC630153), National Natural Science Foundation of China (41371184) and Science & Technology Program of Hunan Province (2014FJ3149).
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 142 • Issue 2 • June 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 18, 2014
Accepted: Jun 22, 2015
Published online: Sep 10, 2015
Discussion open until: Feb 10, 2016
Published in print: Jun 1, 2016
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