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Urban village regeneration has been considered an effective way to achieve the vision of transforming the arrival cities in China to affordable cities. However, the existing research into urban village regeneration does not pay enough attention to the group of rural migrants, and the dynamic process of their participation is indistinct. With a theoretical underpinning of the conception of Arrival City and Affordable City and the ladder theory of participation, this paper attempts to understand the practices of rural migrants' participation in urban village regeneration and, more importantly, to unpack the underlying mysteries of the transition process from arrival cities to affordable cities in China. The paper finds that rural migrants are involved in urban village regeneration indirectly, as opposed to directly or not participating at all. Before a regeneration project take places, they are expelled and ostracised by the alliance of "government-developer-villager" because of their informal identities. After the project, middle-class migrants lived in the regenerated urban villages but suffered from social exclusion. Most of the migrants gather in the newer urban villages or form new arrival cities in the urban periphery, resulting in potential social conflicts and a vicious cycle of "regeneration – migration – regeneration – migration". The vision is realised only in the environment and discourses from the alliance, but not in terms of rural migrants. China's urban transition from arrival cities to affordable cities is incomplete and one-sided. This transition, guided as it is by the existing mechanism of urban village regeneration, undermines social equity and causes social conflicts, which is not sustainable. These findings and proposed corresponding suggestions can serve as valuable references for the practices of public participation in urban regeneration that are underway in developing countries or where there is eagerness to transition effectively from arrival cities to affordable cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of rapid urbanization, land has become the most valuable scarce resource, and the regeneration of urban villages is related to urban land supply for urban redevelopment. The redevelopment of urban villages can promote the efficient use of land resources and contribute to the sustainable development of the city. This paper examines the redevelopment of an urban village in Guangzhou from the perspective of territorialization and finds that urban villages ultimately become territories dominated by the coalition formed by the market developers and the rural collective organization of the urban village. When the local government attempts to redevelop the village, the coalition fights against the government and defends the territory, leading to the predicament of urban redevelopment. By exploring the territorialization process and the dynamics of spatial production, this paper argues that territorialization is a means of reifying and reinforcing power in a geographical space and represents a significant attempt to achieve urban redevelopment. Both the local government and the coalition can contribute to the redevelopment of urban villages. Although territorialization is an efficient way to achieve urban redevelopment, it may solidify an area and cause the straitened circumstances of city government to implement the new city strategy. This paper thus calls for a focus on the value of bottom-up territorialization and the ingenious combination of city planning and territorialization to achieve effective urban redevelopment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social and spatial patterns of ageing population in urban China illuminate the influence of the socioeconomic transformation associated with the dual economic system. Guangzhou, one of China's megacities, is used as a case study in this paper. Data from the 2010 National Census were used to examine the spatial differentiation and the related factors of ageing communities in Guangzhou. Using social area analysis, the study identified six categories of ageing communities: traditional inner-city communities, traditional danwei residential communities, commercial housing ageing communities, danwei compound ageing communities, immigrant ageing communities, and rural ageing communities. The paper analyses the reasons and processes leading to the clustering of the elderly population in each category of areas associated with distinctive spatial patterns of ageing differentiation. These patterns suggest that the socio-spatial differentiation of ageing communities is a joint outcome of urban development, housing policies, personal status and family relationships. The dynamics of both ageing in place and ageing with migration had a dual impact on the spatial, social and ecological patterns of ageing communities. The spatial differentiation of ageing communities in the study area should be taken into account when formulating urban planning and public policies. In addition, a dynamic public facility and service allocation system is also necessary to meet the needs associated with evolving socio-spatial urban restructuring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Urban regeneration is a complicated process as it involves a lot of parties each with different interests and agendas. Regeneration of urban villages is an even more intricate issue in China due to the dual systems of property rights over urban and rural land. While a lot of attention has been given to the governance structure applied to the regeneration process, this paper tries to analyze the changing ideological foundation for local authorities in China to execute such regeneration in a more efficient and less costly way. By a detailed case study of Liede Village in Guangzhou, we find that local authorities in China are willing to explore neoliberal approach in coordinating with market forces in the process of regeneration. The results in this case study are promising as all parties involved got what they wanted from the regeneration scheme. However, one should not be mistaken that this is a paradigm shift in the governance ideology. We expect that such progress to take place only in a gradual manner when circumstances in the market and socio-political environments allow it to proceed further, a situation not dissimilar with how ships advance gradually in a canal via various locks. We coin this situation in this paper a “locks analogy”. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper aims to delineate the current situation and settlement strategies of rural–urban immigrants in metropolitan cities of China. The authors have reviewed the development of the housing market in Guangzhou since the 1980s. Based on the analysis of the general housing market in Guangzhou; the spatial residential pattern of the temporary population; and the recent renewal and construction plan of “Urban Village”, the authors recommend a self-help housing strategy for settling the temporary population in Guangzhou. The strategy can be considered as maintaining a balance between the housing supply of and the demand for the targeted population. A brief introduction on the housing experience of the urban poor, Hong Kong and Singapore is provided at the beginning of the paper. The authors feel that the experience and strategic recommendations are relevant and applicable to the formulation of settlement policy for temporary population in China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The scholarship in building community capacity by way of cultivating community social capital and community spirit through neighborhood design has spawned heated debates in urban and community studies. This paper contributes to this scholarship by examining the neighborhood contexts of grassroots participation in Chinese contemporary urban communities. In particular, it explores the relationship between neighborhood communal space and community participation, using a city-wide survey of 1809 households in 39 commodity housing estates in the city of Guangzhou. It is found that local residents' participation in community affairs is conditioned by both the social milieu (measured by the overall level of social cohesion) and the physical environment (indicated by effects of communal space) of a neighborhood. Notably, communal space exerts positive indirect effects on grassroots participation by facilitating the development of place-based social capital and neighborhood attachment. These findings point to a civic virtue of communal space and provide nascent evidence regarding neighborhood contexts of grassroots participation in urban China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies mainly focused on rural-urban migrants' homeownership preferences from discrete life events. Few studies concentrated on skilled migrants' homeownership outcomes and aspirations from family lifecycle theory. To fill these gaps, this paper, based on a questionnaire survey in Guangzhou, used the Probit regression models to investigate why skilled migrants' homeownership outcomes and aspirations vary among different family lifecycle stages. It found that skilled migrants in the bachelor stage and newly married couple stage are less likely to become homeowners in Guangzhou; the possible reason is that they lack the adequate wealth to purchase housing due to lower income and insufficient savings. With the income and savings increasing, skilled migrants in the full and empty nest stages are more likely to become homeowners in Guangzhou. In addition, skilled migrants in the bachelor stage, full nest stage, and empty nest stage are more eager to access homeownership; the possible reasons include homeownership accumulating wealth rapidly, homeownership providing housing stability, and homeownership tied with quality educational resources, and giving children housing support. Skilled migrants in newly married couples have a higher tendency to rent housing because they do not decide to settle in Guangzhou permanently, and renting housing is more flexible. These findings can provide strong evidence of the gap between skilled migrants' housing tenure outcomes and aspirations in China's super cities from the family lifecycle theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: China’s recent wave of rapid urbanization generated a specific form of urban development called the “village in the city” (ViC). It is characterized by the dual urban-rural structure and it accommodates, to begin with, the monumental housing needs of rural migrants. Although the issues of ViCs are very specific and enormous, they evidently have a lot in common with those of slum areas and dilapidated urban areas in developed and developing contexts, in which there already is a long experience with upgrading or urban renewal operations. Also in this specific context of upgrading and urban renewal, the strategic urban project approach is generally being advocated. It emphasizes vision development, the coproduction by stakeholders and the implementation of actions. Strategic urban projects are the cornerstone of this approach. This paper sketches a conceptual framework for the strategic urban project approach for the sustainable redevelopment of “villages in the city” (ViCs) in Guangzhou. It makes an attempt to translate the methodologies of the strategic urban project approach to the Chinese context. Adapting the method to deal with the multi-stakeholder environment and complex issues in ViCs is indeed necessary in order to obtain a sustainable redevelopment of ViCs. Consideration is given to the roles and partnerships of key stakeholders, visions at different levels, and specific actions that deal with opportunities and issues in strategic locations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The integration of rural migrants into China’s urban society has drawn extensive attention in recent years. There are, however, a growing number of new-generation migrants whose prospects of integration cannot be gleaned from the experience of their predecessors—the old-generation migrants. The reconstruction of migrant network is a lens through which one can examine the extent and pattern of their integration. In this paper, using quantitative data derived from a survey of eight urbanized villages in Guangzhou, we examine the socio-spatial pattern of migrant networks and the role of receiving neighborhoods in social interactions, with a focus on inter-generational differences. The findings show that new-generation migrants are more likely to draw on cross-class, non-kin, and non-territorial networks when seeking social support, but that hometown-based bonds and the urbanite-migrant divisions remain central to their social networks. For the role of receiving neighborhoods, although new-generation migrants have weak neighborly interactions, they construct numerous colleagues and friendship ties that transcend the boundaries of neighborhoods. Moreover, educational attainment, income level, and occupation structure are important determinants of the nature of new-generation migrant networks. The results suggest that generational factors should be highly considered when studying the integration of migrants into Chinese urban society. Accordingly, the integration of migrants into the urban society will be a conflictual and contradictory process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Based on Landsat remote sensing data and by means of specific extraction and supervised classification of remote sensing information, a dynamic study was carried out on urban expansion of the built-up area of Guangzhou City in different periods. A detailed analysis was made of the area, orientation and rate of variation of urban expansion of Guangzhou City in the period of 23 years lasting from 1979 to 2002, and a model for urban expansion was proposed in this paper. As demonstrated by our research results, urban expansion of Guangzhou City is very fast with high speed development of the economy. In the 23 years period, the built-up area of Guangzhou City attains a net increase of 325.5 km2, and reaches 397.4 km2 in 2002, which is nearly 4.5 times of that in 1979 and means an annual average expansion of 14.2 km2 and an annual growth rate of 19.7%. The model of urban expansion in Guangzhou City is basically characterized by radial expansion centered on the old city town, which takes the form of expansion in rings, in layers and along major traffic routes. Here the rate of urban expansion varies in different periods, and is the most outstanding in various periods in the east of the city. The built-up area of Guangzhou City is highly correlated with the gross domestic product (GDP), total population, urban resident income and urban traffic of the city, which are the dominating driving factors for expansion of the built-up urban area of Guangzhou City. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Households in Chinese cities today have to increasingly rely on the market to satisfy their housing needs. The growing freedom in choosing one''s own residence implies increased variations in all aspects of housing consumption. Examination of individuals’ housing preferences is crucial in understanding these variations. This paper studies the housing preference of Guangzhou people through choice experiments framed in state-of-the-art experimental design methods. Joint logit models comprising both neighbourhood and dwelling attributes are estimated for all subjects and for various sub-samples classified by family income, age, education, nature of employment organization, district of current residence, etc. The models are then used to compute utilities for different attribute levels, the impacts of these attributes on choice probabilities, and the relative prices that the subjects are willing to pay for buying a home in different districts, with different accessibilities, of different types, etc. Neighbourhood and location-related attributes are found to be more important than dwelling-related attributes in home purchase decisions. Further, factors such as family income, age, education, nature of employment organization, etc. are found, to various degrees, have affected housing preference. Based on the preference structures revealed, we envision a new urban morphology to take shape in Chinese cities which is not too dissimilar from the ones in cities in the West, with the inner core dominated by the aged and the urban poor and the outskirts occupied by younger people and the rich and well-educated class. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]