Assessing the Social and Political Impact of the Rise of “Peasant Apartments” in Rural China: A Case Study of Zibo, Shandong

Description

Social dislocations related to urbanization and the issues of spatial justice have always been, and remain at the core of urban debates in the social sciences theory. China is evidently not immune to this challenge. The form of land grab by local governments may have changed over the years, but not its intensity. The most recent local initiative is to "elevate the peasant into high rise apartment". Under this new institutional initiative, peasants who are willing to surrender their land contract will be relocated to a high rise building. Such vertical extension of residential space would then release more land for development. With its possible impact on the peasants’ economic and welfare entitlement and political efficacy, this spatial realignment heralds a redefinition of rural citizenship. This research intends to evaluate the impact of this process with a case study of Zibo in Shandong, a pioneer city in introducing this experiment.