Rural–urban transition in China: illegal land use and construction

This paper takes issue with the desakota model developed by Terry McGee by elucidating the illegal land use and construction in the rural–urban transition zone in China, with the additional case study of Tianhe Village in Guangzhou City. The paper emphasises the need to examine the geography of illegal activities along the approach of geographies of difference. It has shown that illegal land use and construction is prevalent in rural China. In rural areas where cultivated land has been converted to non‐agricultural purposes, peasants are left with no alternative but to use land and construct buildings illegally. Some have increased their income by leasing out flats to migrant workers, whereas others have not been able to do this. This study has revealed that underneath the positive and integrative picture portrayed by the desakota model is its negative and disintegrative counterpart. Illegal land use and construction is one such example. Unless we incorporate both into our studies, we will not be able to comprehend the urban morphology of Chinese city regions in the new millennium.     

Local geographies of globalisation: rural agglomeration in the Chinese countryside

China’s rural enterprises were responsible for 48 per cent of the $US 151 billion in exports and absorbed nearly 20 per cent of total foreign direct investment in 1996. Clearly, the significant and increasing role of rural enterprises in China’s integration with the world economy demands attention. The penetration of global capital into the rural enterprise sector and the desire of such enterprises to benefit from expansion into international markets have important implications at the local level. The impact of international, domestic and local forces on institutional and structural reforms is reflected in particular spatial outcomes in rapidly developing non‐urban regions. Local authorities have responded to external forces in ways which do not conform to the conventional expectations. Evidence from the lower Yangtze (Yangzi) delta reveals how the supposedly universalising pressures of globalisation have been mediated and adapted at the local level, particularly in terms of enterprise location and the proliferation of special zones. Expanding on the desakota hypothesis, the notion of rural agglomeration is introduced to capture the paradox of spatial economic transformation as it was linked to local circumstances, and localised responses to external pressures of globalisation.     

China’s transport and communications firms: transforming national champions into global players

China’s entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) exposes its state‐owned maritime, aviation and telecommunications operators to unprecedented competition. This development raises a series of critical issues about China’s transition from a state‐planned regime towards a real market economy. How will China’s leading state‐owned firms in deep‐sea container shipping, air passenger transport and telecommunications respond to the dilemma posed by the World Trade Organisation and to what extent has Hong Kong been involved in China’s transport and communications restructuring process? These broad issues are addressed by examining progress on the Chinese Government’s post‐1993 plans to restructure each of the key state enterprises in sea‐land transport, air transport and telecommunications. Specifically we are concerned with the degree to which China’s national champions in these transport and communications arenas have been remade into global players. Particular attention is paid to the role of Hong Kong in this transformation since its return to China in 1997. Our studies show that China has transformed its national champions into a global players in container shipping. The process may be beginning to happen in air transport but has yet to get underway in telecommunications.     

Twenty‐first century nomadic city: Ger districts and barriers to the implementation of the Ulaanbaatar City Master Plan

Since the early 1990s, Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, has experienced rapid rural to urban migration and population growth resulting in the growth in informal settlements across the city. The informal settlements are known as ‘ger’ districts. In response to these pressures, since the 1990s, the central government has adopted a programme of land reform and metropolitan planning. These new reforms take place in the context of a unique, post‐socialist political, economic and institutional context. The land reform process has attempted to privatise land ownership, which has traditionally resided with the state. The privatisation process was initiated under the new Constitution of Mongolia, which initiated reforms in all sectors of social and economic development, and since 2003, targeted land reform in ger districts. Running parallel, a series of urban land‐use planning schemes have been introduced to frame the development of Ulaanbaatar in the context of an emerging market economy. Although master plans for urban development have been established since the 1950s, urban land‐use planning is a new concept in this emerging market economy. The aim of this paper is to trace the rationales and challenges of implementing master plans and land privatisation processes in Ulaanbaatar. Drawing on interviews with city, national and local government officials conducted in 2009, the paper focuses on the implications of these reforms for both the government and the residents of ger districts.     

中国农户小额信贷问题初探——以中国农业银行临沂市分行为例

解决好农村、农民、农业问题关系到中国经济的可持续发展。党的十八大报告中把解决三农问题、推动城乡发展一体化、促进农民增收作为党工作的重中之重,需要加快构建适应三农特点的农村金融体系。因此,农户小额信贷成为农村金融机构对农户进行金融服务、构建农村信用体系的重要方式。农业银行临沂市分行大力拓展农户小额贷款业务,围绕三农市场定位,通过不同的贷款模式,有效的满足了不同层次的农户贷款需求,成为支持新农村建设和农民增收的主力军。笔者就临沂市的农业银行的工作实际,通过实证和历史比较的分析方法,对农户小额贷款问题进行探讨。农业银行开展农户小额贷款有利于农户收入和农村经济的增长,并提出应扩大农户信贷规模、完善信用体系等方面的建议。     

Hong Kong and the globalisation of the Chinese diaspora: a geographical perspective

This study examines the processes of spatial restructuring in the Hong Kong–South China region. The paper analyses urban‐rural interaction in a historical and transnational context. Based on detailed census data collected in 1961 and 1996, this study traces the origins of the Hongkongers and maps out their spatial distribution according to their native place identities. The heightened population movement between the rural hinterland in the South China region and the Hong Kong metropolis is inseparable from territorial organisation on the Chinese mainland. The great spatial mobility demonstrated by the Hongkongers, or, their ‘refugee mentality’ as it is known, is found to be deeply rooted in their marginal sub‐ethnic identity in the nation. A systematic analysis of spatial data reveals that the diasporic landscape developed in Hong Kong has been polarised by the élite English and Shanghainese speakers on the one end and the Kejia people on the other end. Despite the processes of globalisation, the great spatial mobility of the Hong Kong sojourners and the diasporic landscape they have created have been effectively shaped by their place‐based ethno‐linguistic identities. If the transnational movement of people is considered an important component of globalisation, then this study reinforces the importance of locality and contests the fashionable notion of globalisation as a ‘placeless’ phenomenon. The seemingly displaced empire of Chinese diaspora capitalism, in which Hong Kong has played a crucial part, has remained grounded by pre‐existing place‐specific conditions.     

Building knowledge city in transformation era: Knowledge‐based urban development in Beijing in the context of globalisation and decentralisation

This study examines knowledge‐based urban development in Beijing with the objective of revealing the impact of the ‘synergetic’ forces of globalisation and local government intervention on knowledge‐based urban development in the context of the coexisting processes of globalisation and decentralisation. The findings in this paper show that due to the rapid growth of the cultural industry sector, knowledge‐based urban development has created various kinds of ‘cultural industry clustered areas’, which were recently promoted by the 2008 Olympic Games. ‘Synergetic’ global and local forces are leading knowledge‐based urban development, with the emergence of a local coalition regime in which local government manages local development, considered as ‘enterprises’ in the decentralisation process, while the State retains a significant influence on knowledge‐based urban development. The central and municipal governments tend to emphasise strategies to ‘facilitate the climate for growth’ rather than the centrally planned control they exerted prior to the 1980s.     

Beyond the bid-rent: Two tales of land use transition in contemporary China

The bid-rent curve has long been recognized as a persistent law in urban and regional studies. We challenge this orthodox theory by highlighting two limitations in demystifying patterns of urban land redevelopment and rural land use utility in transitional China. Empirical evidence shows that distance still matters to both urban and rural land use transition. However, the property-oriented and scale-sensitive functional structure of redevelopment is not exactly what Alonso suggested. The temptation of urbanization, coupled with the resistance of rural revitalization, results in an inverted bid-rent curve in terms of the utilization of rural housing land. The dual-track nature of both urban–rural household registration (hukou) and land use systems contributes a lot for these unconventional findings. We can therefore summarize that transition of land use in both urban and rural China is largely institutionally driven, and the Chinese government is the dominant agent of creating a unique trajectory of spatial restructuring.     

Ordering the exemplary urban spaces: A critical analysis of Hanoi's embellishment projects

Vietnam has a long tradition of social engineering through which the ordering of urban space has effectively been used to enforce the state's vision of political and social order. With the country currently in transition from a centrally planned to a market‐oriented economy, the ordering of urban spaces is currently all the more important. This is prominently manifested in the numerous beautification projects that are being implemented in Vietnamese cities. This article explores recent ordering endeavours and considers the way they are legitimated and contested in Vietnam's new socio‐political context. Three beautification projects in Hanoi are examined using materials from policy documents, professional journals and media coverage. The article argues that state ordering actions and the ‘exemplary’ urban spaces they seek to create are embodiments of a complex system of orders of powers in transitional Vietnam, in which political visions of modernist socialism and the new market‐oriented agenda are sometimes in alignment and sometimes clash. Overall, the state's failure in sustaining these ‘exemplary’ urban spaces is emblematic of this hybrid system.     

The Call of the Wild: Call Centers and Economic Development in Rural Areas

This paper attempts to reflect critically on the role which telephone call centers might play in the economic development of rural places in the ‘information age’, drawing mainly on a case study of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. It argues that although call center employment tends mainly to be urban‐based, the growth of this form of work does present opportunities for some rural areas. The paper considers the locational factors rural areas would have to possess or develop in order to attract such work. It suggests call centers can make a valuable, though limited, contribution towards rural economic development, principally through the creation of additional employment opportunities and the stimulation of new skills and competencies. It also suggests that call centers do not represent a panacea for rural areas and that, indeed, it would be dangerous for rural areas to become over‐reliant on employment in this sector.     

Institutions and local growth coalitions in China's urban land reform: The case of Hangzhou High‐Technology Zone

Abstract: China's urban land reform is a gradualist process of transforming a planned land allocation system to an open land market system, while the ownership of the land remains under the control of the state. This process defines the relationships between local government and emerging non‐public interest groups in the land development process. These issues can be most clearly seen in the State‐Approved Development Zones, where municipalities have been encouraged to promote economic development and test out land policy initiatives. Using the institutionalist and urban growth machine analytical approaches to land development processes, this study examines the operation of development processes and the role of local government and its relationship with other interest groups. By employing a case study research strategy, focused upon the Hangzhou High‐Technology Zone, the study uncovered a local government‐led growth coalition which featured participation by other interest groups and revealed the applicability and variations when applying two strands of theories to a socialist economy in transition. Besides the land reform policy implications drawn from the case study evidence, the study concludes that the presence of interest groups and the missing community organisations unique to China give new theoretical implications and that both theories work much better with the economic domain than with the political domain largely because of a lagged political reform.     

Beyond large‐city‐centred urbanisation: in situ transformationof rural areas in Fujian Province

This paper explores China’s in situ urbanisation and its implications for the paradigm of extended metropolitan areas. Based on preliminary results of the 2000 census, field surveys and interviews, government statistics and documents, and direct observation in Fujian Province of China, a region without much influence of mega‐cities, the analysis shows that in situ urbanisation resulting from the transformation of rural settlements has played an important role since the 1980s. The paper examines major factors contributing to the process of in situ urbanisation, especially the development of township and village enterprises, government policies and foreign investment. Some underlying conditions, such as local historical and geographical conditions and cultural characteristics, high population density and improvement in transport and communications, are also discussed, and the future prospect of the urbanisation pattern in the context of local economic restructuring and urbanisation strategies in the new century is gauged. The paper also assesses the relevance of the paradigm of extended metropolitan areas to the urbanisation pattern, and suggests the need for a conceptual framework focusing on the urbanisation process resulting from bottom‐up rural developments.     

Regional Development and Land Use Change in the Rocky Mountain West, 1982‐1997

ABSTRACT Economic and demographic restructuring, along with the increasing desirability of environmental amenities, have driven growth in the eight‐state region of the Rocky Mountain West to extraordinary levels in recent decades. While social scientists have developed a solid conceptual understanding of the processes driving growth and change in the region, the broad nature of the land use outcomes associated with in‐migration has not received nearly as much scholarly attention. This article initiates an in‐depth empirical investigation on the magnitude, nature, and spatial variation of land use change in the Rocky Mountain West over the 1982‐1997 time period. Data from the USDA's National Resources Inventory reveals that the conversion of landscapes from rural to urban types of land uses varies significantly from place to place, not only in terms of total land developed, but also with respect to how population pressures and a number of other local characteristics of counties manifest themselves in the spatial pattern of growth.     

Spatiotemporal patterns in China's Minimal Living allowances: The urban-rural gap and regional differences revealed through a national poverty alleviation program

The Minimal Living Standard Allowance System (MLSAS), established by the Chinese central government in the late 1990s, was intended to provide basic needs for urban and rural low-income populations. Although the subsidy standards of MLSAS have increased rapidly over the years, its distributions in time and space were found imbalanced. Using the per capita subsidy income (PCSI) data of 338 Chinese cities from 2008 to 2016, this study quantified the spatiotemporal patterns of the urban-rural gap and regional differences of MLSAS throughout China and identified the major influential socioeconomic factors of the observed patterns. The results showed that the PCSI of China's low-income populations increased rapidly but with large variations between urban and rural residents and between geographic regions. The PCSI in rural areas was much lower than that in urban areas, whereas the Gini coefficient of PCSI in urban areas was lower than that in rural areas, indicating the allowance from MLSAS was more unequal among rural residents. Additionally, the higher PCSI was concentrated mainly in three urban agglomerations in eastern China. Most cities in central and western China lagged in terms of PCSI. Correlation analysis between PCSI and socioeconomic factors indicated that the income and GDP per capita were the most important influencing factors. With a better understanding of the overall situation of the urban-rural gap and regional differences in implementing MLSAS, the current study should help improve the subsistence subsidy policies in China.     

中国教育的城乡不平衡发展探究

随着中国市场经济的不断发展和城市化进程的逐步推进,社会与经济发展中也出现了很多新的问题。其中,城乡经济与社会发展不协调造成的城乡教育不平衡发展成为影响社会发展和经济增长的主要因素。中国城乡教育失衡由城乡教育资金投入差距、城乡师资力量差距和城乡教育机会差距这3方面原因造成。教育的城乡差距反过来又在经济方面造成农村经济发展滞后,形成了“经济滞后——教育落后——经济滞后”的恶性循环。在就业方面,造成农村人才不足的同时城市就业压力过大。在社会发展方面,造成农村的人口、法制、文化等方面落后于城镇的水平。最后提出加大对农村教育的扶持力度,从教育机会分配的优惠政策、提高教育资金投入和加强师资力量建设这3个方面入手,推动农村教育发展,缩小城乡教育差距。     

Practices of place‐making: Globalisation and locality in the Philippines

Abstract: Global flows of people and information in the Asia–Pacific region are creating new forms of place that stretch across national boundaries and rural–urban distinctions. These new mobile forms of place link long‐inhabited rural areas to cities, national centres, and to rural frontiers within the nation. Here, we describe new forms of place that are being produced by contemporary migration and economic change, using data from the Philippines and applying Appadurai's theorisation of translocality. Our analysis links these flows of overseas migrants to concomitant processes of economic change, migration and new rural livelihoods. We outline changing practices of place within the Philippines, exploring ways that transnational migration can articulate with apparently ‘local’ development and the flow‐on effects from migration on the spatial patterns of rural livelihoods.     

Plan and market mismatch: Urban redevelopment in Beijing during a period of transition

Abstract: With the emergence of the real estate market since 1990, the operation Beijing's economy has led to a re‐shaping of its inner city. By reviewing the Old and Dilapidated Housing Redevelopment (ODHR) programme in Beijing in the 1990s, this paper seeks to uncover the forces that led to the prevailing large‐scale urban redevelopment which induced serious environmental and socio‐economic problems. By analysing conflicts between major stakeholders of the ODHR programme, the paper finds that the root cause of these problems was embedded in the ‘mismatch of plan and market’ by which local officials and local developers utilised their privileges inherited from a planned economy to benefit from the emerging real estate markets. As a result, the hidden agenda of local elites was facilitated during the urban redevelopment process.     

中国农村土地承包经营权流转问题研究-以河南省为例

农村土地流转是市场经济发展新的阶段优化土地资源配置的迫切需要,对促进农业发展,维护农村稳定,增加农民收入起到积极作用;本文在对河南若干地区进行选择区域性实地调查的基础上,分析了农村土地承包经营权流转的现状;研究了土地流转中存在的流转手续不健全、流转形式单一、规模化经营程度不高等诸多问题,并对问题背后深层次的原因进行了探讨提出了强化流转规范化管理、加快农村劳动力转移等若干对策,为完善农村土地流转制度提供了参考依据;土地流转机制的完善,土地法制的健全,在提高农民收益、保障农民权益上有了很大程度上的提高,对本时期我国国民经济发展起到促进作用。     

Geographics of identity: the migrant experiences of Filipinas in Northeast Ohio

Major urban areas in the United States have undergone rapid shifts in their ethnic compositions. However, ethnic change is not limited to urban areas; rural areas, likewise, have witnessed substantial changes in recent decades. Scholarship, though, has paid minimal attention to the day–to–day lives of migrants in non–urban, and ethnically–homogenous, locations. And yet the ‘migrant experience’ is fundamentally different. Using Friedman’s concept of a ‘geographics of identity’, this paper provides insight into the day–to–day activities of two Filipinas as they adjust to living in rural northeast Ohio. Findings suggest that difficulties may accrue at a multitude of social scales, including tensions and contestations not only between Filipinas and non–Filipinas, but also among the Filipinas themselves. Moreover, the constant ‘becoming’ of identity is highlighted through their experiences.     

优化城乡建设用地结构与布局研究——以河北省藁城市为例

优化城乡建设用地结构与布局是统筹城乡发展、构建和谐社会的重要内容。本研究为了解决在统筹城乡发展过程中如何更好地安排城乡建设用地结构与布局的问题,以河北省藁城市为研究对象,在充分调查河北省藁城市城乡建设用地的现状的基础上,从数量、布局、所占比重等方面分析了城乡建设用地存在的问题。研究认为,城镇规模偏小、土地集约利用程度相对较低、双重用地问题突出、城市化水平低、产业发展竞争力不足等问题是阻碍城乡建设用地结构与布局优化的重要因素,并从科学编制土地利用总体规划、建立土地集约利用评价体系、深化改革、加强土地管理、集约利用土地的城镇化道路等方面提出相应优化藁城市城乡用地结构,推进建设用地整理的对策建议。