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This paper examines the commodification process initiated through a series of state-led programs and questions the sustainable public goods provision in rural China. We challenge the unilateral understanding of spontaneous commodification by the profit-seeking community, and argue that the influence exerted by the Chinese government cannot be ignored. It is found that a preliminary partnership among the state, private investors and villagers was formed to create a hot-spring village called Tangjiajia in suburban Nanjing. The reconstruction was the result of a state-led renovation of the built environment, but it also catalyzed villager entrepreneurship and boosted community consensus. Regarding the public goods provision, stakeholders in the village now enjoy high-quality facilities and services provided by the government for free but have failed to foster reciprocal cooperation to replenish the subtractability of the rural commons. We claim that state intervention is temporal but not a cure-all. A pricing mechanism for the sustainable delivery of public goods is urgently needed in the community. The state-led commodification has undermined the previous low-level equilibrium of rural governance. From the stance of rural sustainability, only self-organization of the rural community can solve the dilemma. • Government wields built environment programs to revitalize the countryside. • The state-private-farmer partnership is initially established. • Stakeholders fail to replenish subtractability of rural commons. • Sustainable provision of rural commons is still in question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stemming from the theoretical concepts worked out in detail in Paper I, this paper demonstrated in empirical terms on two major fronts. First, the redevelopment trajectory of industrial land in Nanjing was identified and was shown to consist of the dilemma of firm migration and the puzzle of space transformation. Second, the multiple rounds of bargaining between original land user and land owner were analyzed, and it was shown in particular how the industrial land of local state-owned enterprise (SOE) can be redeveloped under the control or intervene of urban government. Finally, we argued that the disputes between original land user and land owner on the sharing of redevelopment cost and the distribution of potential benefits constituted a potent system of explanatory coordinates that effectively reveals the hidden logic of industrial land redevelopment in urban China. And the carrot-and-stick approach employed by local authorities is the key to breaking that deadlock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food subsidies are widely implemented as part of government policies globally to mitigate food insecurity amongst the urban poor. Subsidies to retail outlets are one a type of supply-side subsidy designed to make food more affordable to low-income consumers. China's Affordable Food Shop (AFS) program introduced by the central government in 2011 and implemented by municipal governments is one example. To date, there has been little research examining the effectiveness of the AFS program despite more than a decade of implementation. This paper presents a case study of the program's effectiveness in Nanjing which was one of the first Chinese cities to introduce the program which grew very rapidly in the years that followed. In early 2020, the Nanjing program was closed which raises important questions about its effectiveness and impact. We show that food insecurity in Nanjing is generally low but that increased food insecurity is associated with lived poverty, lower income, and unaffordability of staple foods. Food insecurity is not mitigated by proximity to an AFS Program shop. The paper argues that the program had various deficiencies and a limited effect in reducing food insecurity and increasing food accessibility. These included inappropriate targeting, program redundancy, and competition from supermarkets and public markets. In the circumstances, the decision by the city government to close the program is understandable. • Food subsidy programs in many countries target low-income, food insecure urban populations. • The Chinese central government introduced an Affordable Food Shop (AFS) Program in 2011. • Food insecurity in Nanjing City affects about 20% of the population and varies with level of poverty, income, food expenditure and household type. • The AFS Program in Nanjing has not succeeded in providing cheaper food for low-income, food insecure households. • The limitations of the AFS Program in Nanjing are partly responsible for its closure in 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public rental housing (PRH) projects are the mainstream of China's new affordable housing policies, and their integrated sustainability has a far-reaching effect on medium-low income families' well-being and social stability. However, there are few quantitative researches on the integrated sustainability of PRH projects. Our study tries to fill this gap through proposing an assessment model of the integrated sustainability for PRH projects. First, this paper defines what the sustainability of a PRH project is. Second, after constructing the sustainable system of a PRH project from the perspective of complex eco-system, the paper explores the internal operation mechanism and the coupling mechanism among the ecological, economic and social subsystems. Third, it identifies fourteen indices to represent the sustainability system of a PRH project, including six indices of ecological subsystem, five of economic subsystem and three of social subsystem. Fourth, it qualifies the weights of three subsystems and their internal representative indices. In addition, an assessment model is established through expert surveys and analytic network process (ANP). Finally, the paper carries out an empirical research on a PRH project in Nanjing city of China, followed by suggestions to enhance the integrated sustainability. The sustainability system and its evaluation model proposed in this paper are concise and easy to understand and can provide a theoretical foundation and a scientific basis for the evaluation and optimization of PRH projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Wild boar damage incident has become increasingly frequent in China's cities. • Wild boars appear close to the scenic spots near mountains and water bodies in the city. • Urban climbing expansion has intensified human and wild boar conflict. • Optimization of urban territorial development should be strengthened to mitigate HWCs. Under the context of socio-economic and ecological changes, frequent human-wildlife conflicts (HWCs) have occurred worldwide in recent years. To identify the drivers of human-wildlife conflicts and establish effective management measures, the human-wild boar conflicts in typical city of China were used to conduct empirical study. This study built a database of human-wild boar conflicts (also known as wild boar damage incidents) using 102 wild boar damage incidents occurred in the urban area of Nanjing from 2000 to 2022 to identify the spatiotemporal patterns, hazards and driving factors of these incidents by employing exploratory spatial analysis and geographical detector model. The results showed that the increase in wild boar damage incidents was influenced by a combination of rapid urbanization, habitat fragmentation, vegetation recovery, topography and other aspects. Among them, the root cause is the continuous expansion of built-up areas into the mountainous areas within cities and even encroachment on the mountains, resulting in the fragmentation and shrinkage of wildlife living space. Thus wildlife (represented by wild boars) had to move out and even invade the living space of humans, intensifying conflicts between humans and wild boars. HWCs are a symptom of the imbalance between socioeconomical systems and ecosystems within cities. The government should take some management measures to mitigate these conflicts and promote the harmonious coexistence between humans and nature within cities. For example, limit development, take defragmentation actions and improve compensation mechanism. The process of driving factor analysis of human-wild boar conflicts and related management measures in this paper would be helpful to address similar issues in other cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 caused the vast majority of passenger flights to be grounded, but the crisis raised the importance of the network of dedicated cargo flights and, therefore, interest in its development. This paper aims to evaluate the Chinese scheduled freighter network (CSFN) via its topological properties and to explore its changes following the COVID-19 pandemic. Using spatial analysis with the complex network theory (CNT), the paper found that the CSFN displays small-world and scale-free network properties, similar to that of air passenger network. Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Nanjing are the dominant national hubs in the CSFN because they host the headquarters of many e-commerce giant enterprises and have relatively underutilized airport capacities. The CSFN has improved since the COVID-19 pandemic, with increased network average degree, clustering coefficient, and closeness, and reduced average path. These improvements were mainly driven by major hub cities whose centralities had been strengthened with more route connections. Since China's air passenger traffic had quickly restored in the second half of 2020, we argue that the changes in the CSFN during COVID-19 were unlikely to be a result of the substitution effect between freighter and passenger aircraft. It was more likely a result of the higher air cargo demand during the pandemic and airlines' realisation of the importance of freighter operations in China. • We evaluate the Chinese scheduled freighter network (CSFN) via its topological properties. • We explore the changes in the CSFN following the COVID-19 pandemic. • Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Nanjing are the dominant national hubs in the CSFN. • The CSFN has improved since the COVID-19 pandemic. • The change was driven by higher air cargo demand during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates about intergenerational fairness and resource-use are prominent in diverse international contexts, with a large number of social policy and environmental concerns characterised as having intergenerational dimensions. This includes concerns relating to synchronic equity (how resources are distributed between living generations) and diachronic equity (saving resources for future generations), with climate change being a high-profile example of an issue characterised in this way. In this paper we explore how urban residents perceive their responsibilities towards future generations in two cities based in countries that are major greenhouse gas emitters. Drawing on in-depth interviews with a cross-generational sample of 190 people living in Nanjing, China, and Sheffield, UK, we consider whose future and what aspects of the future people feel responsible for and at what scale. This discussion is situated within an emerging critique of generational discourses that conflate caring for the family and one's own children with caring for the wider society and for the future. We argue that this has far-reaching implications for how people think about intergenerational responsibility and imagine appropriate courses of action, shaping a particular 'timescape' that privileges living generations in close proximity. We find that people in Sheffield tend to be more concerned about social and economic aspects of sustainable development than environmental degradation. People in Nanjing more readily discuss responsibility for environmental stewardship, in the wider political context of state-led and nationalist discourses of collective responsibility, but still appear to struggle with thinking about the future beyond their lifetimes and immediate descendants. We discuss these findings and their implications through the analytical framework of geographies of responsibility, exploring possibilities for a more spatially and temporally extensive scope of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although built environment effects on travel behavior have become a popular research topic globally, studies on the subject have rarely examined how built environment effects may differ between household members. The distinction between household members may be especially important in countries like China where the household registration system and the culture encourage a clear designation of the household head. Using data from Nanjing, China, this paper applies a cluster analysis method to characterize three distinct types of residential built environment and applies the propensity score technique to control for self-selection when examining the travel behavior effects of the three built environment types. Results show that, after controlling for self-selection, built environment effects on travel behavior differ significantly between the household head and other household members. Changes in the built environment do not affect car travel duration or car trip frequency of the household head, but affect significantly car travel behavior of other household members. Moving from the outer area to core or inner urban area is associated with an increased number of leisure trips for the household head, an increased number of maintenance trips for other household members, and increased walking and bicycling travel for both the household head and other household members. The study provides unique evidence on intra-household differences when it comes to the built environment and travel behavior connection. Overlooking intra-household differences may lead to inequitable and/or inefficient urban planning and transportation policy decisions in the context of Chinese cities. • Built environment (BE) effects on travel behavior differ between household members. • BE does not affect car travel of the household head but other household members. • BE affects active travel of both the household head and other household members. • Self-selection leads to overestimation of BE effects for the household head. • Self-selection leads to underestimation of BE effects for other household members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radical economic restructuring has resulted in a large flow of skilled migrants into ever-expanding Chinese cities in the past decade. Dreaming of owning a home in the destination city, skilled migrants compete with locals on the housing market. It is important to know how and when people acquire their home and, by the same token, what prevents others from doing so. Based on the life histories of 804 skilled workers in Nanjing and employing event-history analysis, this paper examines the differences in the timing of entry into homeownership between skilled migrants and their local counterparts and identifies the factors in parallel life course careers that contribute to these differences. Results show a delayed but accelerated increase in the homeownership rate for skilled migrants, indicating an assimilation process. Migrants' later entry into homeownership can be attributed foremost to the limited intergenerational transmission of wealth, while restricted knowledge about the local housing market and later partnership also play a role. Moreover, the evidence suggests that the timing of entry into homeownership is largely determined by the availability of financial resources and progression in the life course rather than institutional factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban regeneration in Western countries can count on a long-lasting tradition of experiences in which civil society has played a fundamental role in counterbalancing the system of power, resulting in profound urban governance readjustments. This has been the result of the increasing centrality of horizontal alliances between citizens and associations involved in urban affairs since the late 1960s in the West. Similar theoretical frameworks have been applied in China. However, these have frequently resulted in conceptual shortcuts that depict civil society as immature or lacking and the state as authoritarian. This paper will explore whether these categories are still entirely valid to urban regeneration in China. While the regime has traditionally prevented horizontal linkages of associations in urban governance (supporting their vertical integration to ensure a certain degree of soft control), there are signs of change. In particular, three cases of urban regeneration in historic areas will be used to discuss the changing role played by civil society in China. The ultimate goal is to examine whether horizontal linkages across groups of heterogeneous citizens are arising at the micro-level of urban governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: As an expression of the state-directed vision for local urban development, China’s master plans are required by the state to provide effective guidance for local spatial land use and socioeconomic development. Using an institutionalist analytical framework, this paper examines China’s master plan mechanism, investigates the discrepancy between master plans and the reality of urban development, and explores obstacles to the implementation of master plans and reasons for the reality of urban development. By employing a case study research strategy, focused upon Nanjing, the study concludes that the master plan has been an approach for local state to realize its interests in economic growth and city competitiveness; that for the best possible pro-growth coalitions, compromises and tradeoffs are reached between central government, local state and various agents in plan making and implementation; that local state now has to handle a diverse set of heterogeneous agents with plural interests at lower levels in the planning process; and that the practice of plan adjustment for alleviating the tension between planning and market forces, and for facilitating effective pro-growth partnerships between local state and other economic agents, argues for more inclusive approaches than what conventional master plans have taken. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper examines the treatment effects of the agricultural cooperative and publicly funded extension services on individual household economy, using data collected by the author from watermelon-producing farm households in rural Nanjing. The cooperative addressed in this study restricts the participation of small-scale farmers, implying that selection into the program must be taken into consideration for an accurate assessment of the treatment effect. The econometric analysis revealed that government extension services have a modest effect on farm income. In contrast, the treatment effect of the agricultural cooperative is robust and substantially large, accounting for nearly 70% of the pre-matching difference. This suggests that the agricultural cooperative system is an important avenue for farmers to improve their economic status. The treatment effect of the agricultural cooperative is highly heterogeneous; the economic benefits arising from the cooperative are significant only for small-scale farms. We can argue that a coexistence of smallholder exclusion and the treatment effect in favor of small-scale farms poses serious challenges to pro-poor agricultural growth in China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper provides first-hand empirical evidence about the differentiation of housing conditions among China’s urban poor families based on a case study of Nanjing. The main findings include: (1) the Hukou family registration system has strong differential effects on poor families’ housing conditions; (2) housing conditions among the urban poor are tightly associated with privatization and home ownership, where non-owners face more severe housing difficulties than nominal owners; and (3) resettlement has played a positive role in improving the poor’s housing conditions, but its positive effects are only present in cases where work units or the government has taken the responsibility of housing the resettled poor. These findings show that housing the urban poor in post-reform China is largely: (1) path-dependent, (2) privatization-oriented, and (3) development-driven, and a mechanism that can pro-actively ensure the poor’s basic right to housing is still lacking. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze consumers’ awareness and attitudes towards biofuels implementation in road transportation sector of China with respect to different consumption groups. Firstly, the status and future trends have been reviewed, which focuses on the private vehicles development, energy demands of road transportation sector and biofuels. Furthermore, a comprehensive survey has been conducted for 374 private vehicle drivers (owners) in Nanjing. A questionnaire survey method is implemented to collect information including respondents’ awareness, brief of biofuels, selection attitudes to biofuels and views on policies. Furthermore, the biofuels selection motives of respondents have been concluded into two main factors, “purchasing pressures” and “product attraction”. Then the respondents were divided into three clusters and compared. The results indicate that 90% of the respondents need to know more about biofuels implementation, and the majority of the respondents emphasize the active significance of reducing GHG emissions to improve energy security and mitigate energy crisis. But 55.6% of the respondents think that biofuels technology is still not mature. It is found that the different perceptions of biofuels between 192 passenger vehicle drivers (PVD) and 182 freight vehicle drivers (FVD). The former focuses on fuel price and fuel performance, while the latter pays more attention to fuel availability. Besides, PVD concentrate on fuel-related attributes while FVD focus on policy-related factors. The survey results give rise to some deeply consideration about the various preferences and awareness on biofuels among different consumer groups. These findings in this study will help to understand the consumer''s energy consumption behaviors and improve the further implementation for biofuels in Nanjing city. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Residential development provides product/service value like floor space, while at the same time it induces severe environmental impacts. This paper introduces a methodology for eco-efficiency (EE) evaluation of residential development at city level, which links product/service value and environmental impacts together. Different from previous researches on environmental impacts related to the construction process of residential buildings, the proposed methodology selects the ecological footprint (EF) as an aggregate environmental indicator to represent all resources consumed and all wastes produced by residential development, while the traditional EF model of a region is improved in view of characters of residential development. Since the final and main objective of the residential development is to provide floor space, which is chosen as the indicator of product/service value herein. The proposed methodology is applied and exemplified in the eco-efficiency evaluation of residential development in three Chinese cities, namely, Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing. Results derived from the proposed methodology can help policy-makers and participants in the industry to assess residential development quantitatively and roundly. They can also provide implications for the environmental management of residential development at city level. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Since the transition of the economic system in the early 1990s, urban poverty has become a prominent social problem and attracted attention among Chinese officials and academics. However, there have been few studies on the spatiality of urban poverty. The purpose of this paper is to examine the spatial pattern of urban poverty in China and the mechanism of spatial concentration. Urban poverty has begun to concentrate in specific locations, mainly in three types of poverty neighbourhoods: inner-city dilapidated residence, degraded workers’ villages and rural migrants’ enclaves. We argue that the emergence of concentrated poverty is rooted in the state-led urban development and the socialist housing provision system. Based on fieldwork in typical poverty neighbourhoods in the city of Nanjing, the concentration of poverty is examined, and its creation mechanism is analysed. Further discussion indicates that poverty concentration in particular neighbourhoods is different from slums or ghettoes in advanced western economies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In contrast to the traditional perception of the pervasive rural poverty in a developing country, poverty has become gradually urbanized in China, despite significant reduction of absolute poverty in rural areas since the late 1970s. This paper focuses on the changing context of urban poverty in China and emphasizes the difference between the “new urban poverty” and the traditional urban poverty, mainly experienced by the “three Nos” (people without stable income, working capacity, or family support) in the socialist era. A theoretical framework is proposed to address the impacts of three major transformations during the economic reform—economic restructuring, changing welfare provision, and sociospatial re-organization—on the poor segment of urban society. A case study of the city of Nanjing is conducted to examine the changing composition of urban poverty and its spatial characteristics. We conclude that new urban poverty in China is an inevitable outcome of economic restructuring, the state''s retreat from workplace-based welfare provision and the urbanization process that re-organizes urban spaces. Due to the strong legacy of socialist urbanism and the limit of our data analysis, there is no strong evidence of poverty concentration at district level, though pockets of urban poverty are found at community level in the city of Nanjing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• A game-theoretic approach was harnessed to analysis the urban regeneration in China. • Redevelopment of industrial land that had been used by central SOEs is studied. • The bargains between stakeholders shifted from "prisoners' dilemma" to "pigs' payoffs", and then to "neo-pigs' payoffs". Drawing upon the game-theoretical concepts for urban land redevelopment in China, this paper provides further substantiation on, and demonstrates, two major fronts in empirical terms. First, the redevelopment trajectory of industrial land that had been used by a central state-owned enterprise (SOE) was identified and was shown as deadlocked by disputes on the pathway to cooperation between the local government and the original land user. Second, the shifts in the bargains between the pair from the "prisoners' dilemma" to "pigs' payoffs," and then to "neo-pigs' payoffs" were analyzed, and we showed how industrial land can be redeveloped. Finally, we argued that disputes between the entrepreneuralization of local governments and the politicization of SOEs constitute a potent system of explanatory coordinates that effectively reveal the hidden logic of industrial land redevelopment in urban China. Different from the redevelopment of local SOEs, communications between the user and owner of urban land, as well as the tradeoff of benefits, are key factors in breaking the aforementioned deadlock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of high-speed rail (HSR) networks is of great significance to researchers in the fields of regional development, regional structure, and regional integration. Whilst a large number of studies have estimated the impacts of HSR networks on regional economic development, accessibility, and commuting behavior, how urban spatial structures evolution in the HSR era remain largely unexplored. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to explore how the urban structures (urban hierarchical structure and urban physical structure) of cities in the Yangtze River Delta evolution by employing a reverse gravity model and a gravity deviation model in the HSR era. Our findings indicate that in the HSR network, the traffic attractiveness of cities in Pan-Yangtze River Delta showed an obvious hierarchical distribution (taking on a spindle shape), and that the first-tier cities comprised of Shanghai and Nanjing. We further found that the impacts of introducing a HSR network on urban land growth were greater in non-HSR cities than in cities with HSR. In addition, the growth rate of urban land was found to be higher in areas surrounding HSR stations than in the city at large. This shows that the introduction of HSR significantly stimulated the development of the cities making up the study area. More importantly, after the opening of the HSR network, the center of gravity of the urban areas of 75% cities that were connected to the HSR network was found to deviate towards the HSR station. Differences in the pattern and degree of deviation were identified, thus indicating the presence of individual differences in the effects of HSR on urban growth in different cities. Image 1 • The impact of HSR networks on urban hierarchical and physical structure is explored. • A reverse gravity model and a gravity deviation model are utilized, taking 2008–2013 into consideration. • In the HSR network, the traffic attractiveness of cities showed an obvious hierarchical distribution. • The impacts of introducing a HSR network were greater in non-HSR cities than in cities with HSR. • The center of gravity of the urban areas of 75% cities was found to deviate towards the HSR station. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]