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Although changes in urban space often mean a restructuring of social relations, few studies elucidate why network-related frameworks are inherently related to residential outcomes in urban neighborhoods. By proposing a relational account of neighborhood governance, we investigate outcomes of neighborhood governance by incorporating a series of measures of network forms of organization, network-based social capital, and neighborly interactions. Based on a collaborative survey project conducted in Guangzhou, we find that neighborhood ties and neighborly interactions are positively associated with neighborhood attachment and cohesion, whereas uneven power relations between grassroots governments and civic homeowners associations are negatively associated with these two measures. These results not only reveal new social dynamics in urban space but also lend support to a relational account of neighborhood governance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Drawing upon the perspective of state rescaling in city-region governance, this paper explores the transformation of cross-boundary governance in the Greater Pearl River Delta (GPRD), a cross-boundary region on the South China coast consisting of the PRD under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Province, and Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions (SARs). Based on updated field investigation and in-depth interviews between 2008 and 2012, the study argues that the Greater PRD has undergone dramatic restructuring of regional governance since mid 2000s, reflected by rescaling attempts initiated by Guangdong provincial government and bottom-up resistance from local residents in Hong Kong. The interaction of the rescaling dynamics has engendered the contested geopolitics of the cross-boundary governance as the regional integration intensified. Notably, the complexity of cross-boundary governance has been heightened by emerging conflicts, resulted from the increasing number of mainlanders as ‘individual visitors’ to Hong Kong since the implementation of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), the first bilateral free trade agreement between Hong Kong and China effective from 2004. By examining the Greater PRD as a salient mega city-region, the present study enriches the growing literature on state rescaling and cross-border governance in contemporary globalization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper examines home financing in China, using data from household surveys conducted in Guangzhou and Shanghai. The nationwide Housing Provident Fund is still of minor importance. The majority of homebuyers continue to rely heavily on personal savings and parental contributions to finance home purchase. Mortgages are gaining importance, with slightly less than one-third of the purchases employing this means. Demographic attributes have relatively minor effects on mortgage loan utilisation. Socio-economic status is of somewhat greater significance; however, it exhibits contrasting effects in Guangzhou and Shanghai, which may be attributed to the difference in local housing market conditions. Migrants are discriminated by their hukou status. The findings show hukou status affects access to mortgage primarily through its impacts on the job market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper uses the concept of citizenship in the social sense of membership and the right to an allocation of resources to examine the urban citizenship of migrants in Chinese metropolises with special reference to Shanghai. Citizenship in the Chinese context is interlocked with the household registration (hukou) system instituted more than 50years ago. The paper tracks the changes in both the defacto and the hukou population in selected Chinese cities in the past 30years to analyze how large the gate of the hukou system has been opened and under what circumstances urban hukou is conferred on migrants. Facing a flood of migration, the Shanghai Municipal Government has introduced a residence card system without challenging the existing hukou system. Blended new wine in an old bottle, a hierarchical structure of population registration and management has been set up leading to a system of citizenship stratification, which allows the municipal government to trade the differential citizenship for talents, capital, and super-low-cost labor and to avoid the social obligations to the non-constituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of personal housing loans in advancing homeownership in urban China. The focus is on the Housing Provident Fund (HPF) and commercial bank mortgage loans. National data show that the use of HPF loans and bank loans has only become more common since 1998, but their share of the total expenditure on home purchase remains relatively small. Data derived from household surveys conducted in Guangzhou in 2001 and 2005 show that personal savings and parental contributions are the most important sources of home finance. The affordability of housing is closely tied to personal savings. To date, access to mortgage finance has played a relatively minor role in China's drive towards homeownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Re-commodification of urban land and housing has produced a highly complex tenure mix and a much more vibrant and differentiated urban landscape. Land leasing, being a major source of fund to urban municipal governments, fuels the expansionary drive and urban sprawl. It also underlies massive redevelopment of inner city districts. On the other hand, institutionalised separation of the urban from the rural, epitomised by the hukou system, has remained largely intact. Massive influx of migrants has produced a two-class urban society comprising de jure residents and migrants. Differential claim to land ownership under the hukou system has turned villages in former suburban areas into migrant enclaves. The six papers in this theme issue examine various aspects of how individuals and households in Chinese cities have coped with the never-ending changes in the policy and built environment. The focus is on housing behaviour, but neighbourhood issues also feature prominently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]