Informality and rapid urban transformation: a case study of regulating urban villages in Shenzhen.

Urban villages in China are the spatial manifestation of urban informality. Previous research has attributed the proliferation of urban villages to a lack of state regulation or the inability of the state. This research seeks to reconsider state regulation of urban villages in light of a new conception of informality resulting from state action. Through a case study of urban transformation in Shenzhen, this research argues that the state is perpetually (re)producing new urban spaces to serve the evolving capital accumulation regime. Such efforts meet resistance when residents' living areas are affected. Resulting from negotiations and compromise between the local authority and affected residents, informality arises during the social creation of space. To support the ever-changing accumulation regime, the state's policies on urban villages constantly evolve, oscillating between tolerance and exclusion. The state defines which activities are formal versus informal, as well as which informality will flourish versus fade into the background of spatial production. Instead of a binary classification, urban village governance should be viewed as an ongoing process that relies on the state's political-economic objectives and the greater urban process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]