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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]

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]

Using the 2005 microcensus data set, this research adopts a multilevel approach to examine housing outcomes in relation to city-level contexts. We find that housing stratification in contemporary China is not homogeneous across cities but rather is spatially dynamic and conditioned by local contexts. Net of other effects, per capita gross domestic product and housing price are significantly associated with housing outcomes in the open market, whereas the effect of a city's administrative rank is restricted to the social housing domain. In addition, in relatively rich cities, the advantage of proper institutional affiliations in owning commodity housing somewhat diminishes, but it remains persistent, if not strengthened, in owning reformed housing and affordable housing. The effects of market-related factors (i.e., education and income) on housing outcomes also vary across cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]