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Village-based bottom-up industrialization and urbanization in high-density dynamic regions give rise to prevalent rural sprawl in a form of considerable fragmentation in land uses, which begs for planning intervention. A paradigm of compact city is aiming to cure the rural sprawl. Nevertheless, spatial restructuring entails reconfiguration of villages' landed interests, which beckons spatial justice discourses. Market-driven rural non-agricultural development without fair allocation of land development rights between villages has given rise to market bias due to the location premium in the land market. Plan-led spatial change without corrective mediation between villages constitutes planning bias. Transition from rural sprawl to urban compactness suggests institutional change in governance jurisdiction from rural villages to urban districts. Inequality between villages caused by market and planning biases has to be dealt with so as to create initial equality based on socio-spatial justice for villages as rural entities to be incorporated into an integrated city. This paper builds up the narratives of social injustice inflicted by spatial change. Gentrification and informal in situ urbanization are two phenomenal spatial changes that do injustice to certain social classes and groups. Implementation of new planning paradigm entailing spatial change could also incur injustice to some of the stakeholders, which beckons institutional intervention to address spatial injustice. • It examined theoretically how space, market and the state interact to produce spatial injustice. • It examined empirically the spatial injustice for rural communities during china's urban-rural spatial restructuring towards compactness. • Market-driven rural non-agricultural development has given rise to market bias due to the location premium. • Plan-led spatial change without corrective mediation between villages constitutes planning bias. • Spatial injustice for rural communities along the rural-rural divide is caused by both market and planning biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nestling in the South American Andes, the Peruvian city of Cusco is one of the most emblematic metropolises of the continent. An impressive example of pre-Columbian urbanism, the capital of the former Inca empire developed into one of the most representative cities of the Spanish colonial realm—today a UNESCO World Heritage Site—and, since the 1920s, into the "tourist capital" of Peru. This article traces the development of the mountain city of Cusco and shows how a location in a specific natural and cultural space translates over time into urban and periurban dynamics dominated by touristification processes. A constitutive element of Andean intermediate cities, "the rural" and the elements related to its semantic space, play a crucial role in spatial reconfiguration processes that produce fragmented leisure landscapes of both the exclusive and the excluded. Local and regional real-estate developers profit from tourism-driven geographical imaginings of Cusco as an Andean city, and from the global urbanization of capital, by developing gated condominiums for a clientele in search of exclusivity, safety, and authentic and aesthetic mountain landscapes. Paradoxically, it is exactly this demand that increasingly destroys the very basis of Cusco's economy and challenges policy makers to overcome a set of dichotomies. • Cusco has developed from the Incan capital into the tourist capital of Peru. • The mountain city of Cusco is an important tourist destination in the Andes. • Touristification leads to periurban growth and encroachment on agricultural land. • Changes in the way of life of the agrarian population alter the cultural landscape. • Planners need to think beyond common center–periphery and valley–upland dichotomies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the determinants of subjective wellbeing in rural communities in Ghana. Using data collected from 310 households from ten rural communities in the Juaben Municipality in Ghana, we investigate the factors that influence subjective wellbeing among residents as well as formulate a model to measure happiness using the OLS and ordinal probit regression models. The study shows that happiness for rural residents, just like in urban areas, is multidimensional and depends on household characteristics. The findings indicate that self-reported happiness varied significantly with gender, marital status, religious background, occupation and source of employment as well as settlement type. Based on the model formulated, the study further found that the average level of happiness in the study communities was 4.79 on a scale of 0–10. The results of the ordinal regression indicate that respondents employed in the public service are happier than those who are self-employed. The transportation dimension was ranked as the most significant dimension basically because of the poor condition of the roads to these villages. The paper therefore recommends the improvement of the major roads in rural areas as good roads tend to contribute substantially to the overall wellbeing of rural dwellers in Ghana. • Subjective wellbeing is multidimensional and depends on household characteristics in rural communities in Ghana. • Average level of happiness in the study communities was 4.79 on a scale of 0 -10. • The transportation dimension ranks as the most significant dimension for accessing rural households wellbeing in Ghana • Religion plays an important role in the happiness of rural households in Ghana. • Access to water has been seen to have a greater impact on wellbeing in Ghana [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metropolization in China today is a form of neoliberal transformation dictated by the state and market whose interactions determine their operational dynamics. This study aims to reinforce existing literature on the metropolization process in which a mosaic pattern of land uses has appeared in suburban and rural zones adjoining the Chinese metropolises. The paper first outlines the political economy behind China's metropolizing forces encroaching upon its disorderly and fragmented peri-urban rurality fused with modernity. This capital accumulation process has been characterized by an uneven distribution of profit gains among stakeholders made up of local peasantry, governments and property investors. Based on a case study of Changping, an urban district of Beijing, this study concludes with the Lefebvrian interpretation on the relationship between changes in land use functions and morphology in China's peri-urban zones. It highlights the unforeseen dynamics resulting from conflicts and negotiations between different stakeholders over property revaluation and land rights. The process of such unitary formality-informality relations is well illustrated in our conceptualization and case studies. • Peri-urban mosaic is the result of peasantry-state-capital negotiations in land rights. • Peri-urban mosaic resonates with Lefebvre's "planetary urbanization" discourse. • Mosaic-like pattern shows the entrepreneurial flexibilities, adaptation and resilience. • The unitary formality-informality relations can be seen in peri-urban Beijing. • It is problematic if variegations are forced into a formal-informal binary set-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broadband access in the home is a necessity, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Increasingly, connectivity is of vital importance for school, work, family, and friends. Existing international research on the implementation of broadband has studied its adoption patterns with a focus on the rural/urban digital divide. This paper explores the digital divide in a case study of the seventh largest city, by population, in the United States; San Antonio is a majority-minority city where over half of the people are Hispanic. This paper focuses on the five key affordability factors that drive broadband adoption. Researchers test social exclusion theory, the structural facets of poverty and social marginality to ascertain its potential impact on broadband access. The authors conducted a survey in both English and Spanish to learn more about the affordability factors that influence the broadband digital divide. Through our analysis, we found evidence that four of the factors (geographical disparities, profit-based discrimination, technology deployment cost, and socio-economic factors) played a role in the digital divide in this case study. The results of this study demonstrate that the digital divide is not exclusively a rural/urban digital divide, but can also occur in an intra-city context. This is especially evident in low-income areas within the city because they have substantially lower broadband adoption rates. The results of this study demonstrate the importance of looking closely at issues of social exclusion of marginalized groups and the affordability of broadband access intra-city. • Paper explored the digital divide in a case study a large U.S. city. • Examined five key affordability factors that drive broadband adoption. • Tested social exclusion theory and its potential impact on broadband access. • Surveyed affordability factors that influence the broadband digital divide. • Evidence for geographical disparities, profit-based discrimination, technology deployment cost, and socio-economic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between transnational housing investment and homeownership status in destinations has received considerable attention. However, the direct causal link between both activities remains scant. This study introduces a new conceptual and empirical framework, quasi-transnationalism and integration nexus, to discuss the causal effects of hometown housing investment on the homeownership of rural migrants in urban destinations. The research also applies a national representative data in China, the National Migrants Population Dynamic Monitoring Survey (NMPDMS), to explore such causal effect. The results show that hometown housing investment has a significantly negative effect on homeownership in urban destinations, whereas the substitution effect of hometown housing investment exceeds the complementary. The conclusions are consistent when IV-LPM regression is applied to correct the potential endogeneity of migrants' hometown housing investment. There are some notable differentials across life cycle groups and origin-destination groups, those are, hometown housing investment produces a larger negative effect for the old generation than the new generation, while it also plays a more important role for migrants who moved within the same regions, but the effect on the migrants from Central and Western China to East China is the weakest among the four origin-destination groups. The possible mechanism is that hometown housing investment influences the housing tenure choice through affecting the return migration plan and housing purchase intent in urban destinations. • This study explores the causal effect of hometown housing investment on homeownership of rural migrants in urban destination • A new framework named quasi-transnationalism and integration nexus is introduced to explore the direct effect • The research applies IV-LPM to correct the potential endogeneity of migrants' hometown investment • The findings show that hometown housing investment has a negative effect on rural migrants' homeownership in the destination • Return migration plan and housing purchase intent in urban destinations may serve as transmission channel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although China has witnessed remarkable increase in housing wealth and total household wealth in recent decades in both urban and rural areas, the housing inequality has grown significantly and urban-rural disparity remains substantial. While previous research has studied urban and rural housing separately, the overall pattern of housing inequality in China remains unexplored. Furthermore, it remains unclear how urban–rural housing inequality contributes to the widening urban–rural wealth gap. With the process of urbanization and new reforms in rural land policy, the housing markets of urban and rural areas are increasingly integrated. Therefore, a holistic understanding of housing inequality is needed. Analyzing data from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), this study first finds that urban–rural inequality is a non-negligible component of the overall housing wealth inequality and that the housing wealth inequality in rural China is higher than that in urban China. Secondly, the relatively higher marketization of housing in urban China helps urban households accelerate their wealth accumulation through higher capital gains, thus widening the household wealth gap between urban and rural areas. These findings have important policy implications for further housing reforms as well as for urban–rural integration. • This study explores the urban–rural housing inequality in China. • Urban–rural housing inequality affects overall housing inequality. • Rural housing inequality is greater than urban and affects household wealth gap. • Housing capital gains accelerate urban wealth accumulation and widen this gap. • Rural housing property registration system and appropriate trading rules are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]