What Drives the Spatial Development of Urban Villages-Guangzhou-China - Coursework Example

A Report on What Drives the Spatial Development of Urban Villages-Guangzhou-China College: Background Spatial urbanization in China has increasingly pose discriminatory influence on migrants leading to rise in hybrids (migrant workers and village-in -the-city) in Guangzhou City. The paper aims at unearthing the influence of power and Positionality and their associated ethical issues to explain this phenomenon. Market-based, political-based factors and dual structure have interconnections to urbanization in Guangzhou. Rural-urban divide is determined by dual land and housing ownership, a Positionality leading to uniqueness in Chinese urbanization process and economic development. Hybrid concept is attached to both multi-dimensional and state-led urbanization process (Chaléard & Université de Paris I: Panthéon-Sorbonne2014). The researcher investigates the interconnections between Positionality, power and their associated ethical issues in Guangzhou with respect to urbanization process. Definition of Terms Power Refers to the ability of an individual to influence others and is derived from position or title, reward, expert, referent, informational and coercive. Reward power is derived when one is has ability to reward others for achievement. Coercive power is based when and individual has ability to penalize others. Expert power comes in when an individual has an expertise over others in particular field. Referent power exists when one’s attractiveness, respected and perceived worthiness. Informational power comes in when one has ability to hoard vital information. Positionality Positionality answers the questions of which one is in relation to others as well as whom others are in relation to you and the impact of others to one. Positionality leads to power which is then applied in influencing other people. Literature Review Urbanization in China Chinese Urbanization process has become more interesting dissertation topic in the recent researches with a conventional knowledge known by scholars as portraying uniqueness process. As noted by Barry Naughton, “china’s urbanization rate….reached its present stage through a trajectory that is utterly unique, and even bizarre.” Chinese urbanization is described as a composite process of two antagonists; Chinese market is understood as a resultant effect of joint decisions made by migrants to urban cities on mass numbers, Political based on spatial expansion determined by demarcation of new urban boundaries framed on a sole government land ownership presenting a platform where land transactions are putatively politically driven resulting into spatial urban expansions. Hukou, rural migration, spatial expansions and population have empirically been used as the benchmarks for measuring urbanization. Spatial expansions is confirmed as the least market based with rural migration ranked top as the market based driving force behind urbanization in Guangzhou city. Modesty in urban population was noted until 1950 as revealed by the data provided by Naughton in 2007 revealing only 18% urban population in 1978 indicating under-sized figure with GDP industrial share pegged at 30-40%. The current migrant influx in the city has risen rapidly with number having been estimated to have doubled in 1999 in comparison to 1978 figure. A 43% urban population was recorded in 2005 which is under questions as hukou measurements reveal a lower figure estimated to be below 30% with respect to a classification of migrants who had lived in the city for more than six years than what is recorded. 15% of hukou was attached to urban population by late 1970sand questions arises on the doubling figure reported figure of 2005. This is hence attached to the encroached spatial expansion of urban boundaries on initially rurally ranked areas, on contrary one what may term as relaxation of hukou controls. Methodology The dissertation focuses on Guangzhou Municipality with over 138 villages in the city to unearth the hukou dual structures based on administrative systems, land and housing ownership and relate the findings to the local governance efforts to eliminates this phenomenon. Research was conducted with respect to Yangi and Liede as the representatives to generalize the situations by conducting interviews and questionnaires to 1500 people. The results obtained showed variations in each targeted area of study residents giving their independent viewpoints. Urbanization in China is this reviewed based on Positionality and the roles leading to power attached to each stakeholder in Guangzhou province. More gulf are thus filled by the use of this dissertations that unearths potential literature with respect to Chinese organizational redevelopment on the village in the city which are further analyzed with the main focus on duality in structures in China. Another research conducted by researchers at the Center for public Administration at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou in conjunction with Southern Metropolis, which designed and surveyed 1500 rural migrants workers in Guangdong province sampled based cities based major destinations of migrants employees and not socio-economic representatives. The findings noted basically described working migrants with the survey conducted in August 2009 an appealing period following the global economic and financial crisis with the hardest hit migrants going having gone countryside (Zhang 2014). The collected income values were for six months of 2009, and were never adjusted seasonally. 20 students were trained at Sun Yat-sen University to pioneer the survey. Accuracy and better response rates were achieved through, probers reading and recording the responses from those interviewed other than sending out questionnaire to be filled by respondents themselves. Results and Analysis Critical examination of Guangzhou City is framed on the basis of duties performed by; village committees, chengzhongcun migrants, local government and native villagers. Results indicate that rural migrants incomes were high in August 2009 and September and improved their living standards. Guangzhou hukou urban residents were found to earn much more compared to migrants. A further revelation was that bottom 10th percentile migrant’s workers in Guangzhou earned more than allowable poverty allowance provided by the local government to assist urban under-class unemployed natives. Market-Based Factors The rural-urban migration in Guangzhou is attached to market-based factors. As noted by the massive rural-urban influx in 1990s, based on power by local government to make various policy decisions; reducing financial resources to rural dwellers, regulatory restrictions on rural industries and heavy infrastructural investments in urban and coastal making cities discriminatively look more attractive than rural but with fewer employment opportunities making migrants to live in absolute poverty. People always move to gain employment in the cities to raise their living standards and exchange their commodities to raise welfare. Housing problems and reduced savings were noted as migrants could not find jobs. The discriminatory position by the government to employ natives has led to spatial urbanization as rural-urban income gap is widened. Hukou System The position taken to disregard residence, birth place or profession which makes classification of state firm employees as urban hukou despite working in rural areas and industrial worker staying in rural areas as rural hukou leads to hukou system power that posses challenges for budgeting and planning for urban population as exact population is unknown. Another challenge is a rural migrant having stayed in cities for a long time is still a rural hukou which further complicates the urbanizations process in Guangzhou (Davis 2007). This Positionality bestows massive power to hukou system making it highly discriminative to rural hukou holders thereby influencing spatial urbanization in Guangzhou City. The System antagonizes political- based factor that asserts that migrants engage in business only on basis of political and legal equality. Political Based Factors Local Governance Government is the sole determinant of land use in Guangzhou, Positionality which has given government necessary power to control land demarcation. Spatial expansion is solely controlled by the government leading to discrimination in urban development with some cities developing rapidly. Urbanization is viewed as establishing new cities and not developing existing ones leading to increased number of urban areas with little population and development. Positionality of categorizing Guangzhou city as jurisdiction and not socioeconomic unit determines urbanization process as this Positionality enables discriminatory jurisdictional control of hukou system regardless of hukou status. Public Finance Generally, public finance shapes urbanization process based on the manner in which it is coined to reach the locals. In Guangzhou, unevenness in redistribution amongst villages has led to hybrid phenomenon where migrants device survival mechanisms (Positionality) to gain access to both formal and informal institutions (Weickert 1995). These strategies are framed on the basis of self-organizations of employment, housing and education which have led to new crops of villages within the city. These self-organizations of migrants are viewed as their best positioned strategy to thwart attempts to eliminate and have power bestowed to them in facing such discriminations.. Ethical Issues Arising From the Report Positionality of local government leads to power that making it to segregate migrants based on income levels in the working condition which affects migrant’s living standard as revealed during 2009 financial crisis with migrants mostly hard hit and had to travel countryside (Śleszyński 2004). Power bestowed on government to transfer funds payable to the unemployed is revealed as which makes them pay little to meet such financial fluctuations. The unethical putative land ownership resulting from sole power to own land by the government hits migrants who then have no option but to establish hybrid to have bargaining power to access schools and housing facilities. Positionality employed by hukou rigidity of retaining its people identity bestows power which translates to government inability budget and plan for her urban population due to lack exact number (Urban project & Duin 2009). Positionality of local government to rule based on jurisdictions and not socio-economic unit gives unethical power as hukou ruled despite their status. Power given to government discriminatively demarcate new Cities expansions based on increasing numbers without developing existing cities has lead to poor living standard and countryside migration of migrants who cannot find jobs and are subjected to absolute poverty. The uneven redistribution of funds based on government powers is another challenge in Guangzhou leading to spatial urban development with migrants being the most affected. Executive summary The dissertation is based on two researchers earlier conducted to reveal the driving factors for the uniqueness of Chinese urbanization process. Duality in structures both land uses and housing ownership have been revealed as first package of factors shaping Guangzhou’s spatial urbanization process (Wang 2005). The factors are further categorized as market-based and political based as determinants of spatial urbanization in China with respect to Guangzhou City. Positionality, power and their associated ethical issues stand erect in this analysis as the reasons behind Guangzhou’s unique urbanization process. Politically, land use and ownership is solely determined by city’s local government guarantying power to control the hukou despite its persistent. There is a tag of war between proponents of market-based factors and political-based factors to urbanizations suggesting that market exchanges are founded only on legal and political equality. On contrary, hukou system attaches increased urbanizations to migrations on the basis of market based such as precautionary savings and consumptions as people move to urban areas in order to look for jobs to enhance their income which is ultimately spent to raise their welfare. Positionality employed by hukou system has presented survival-power despite governments attempts to thwart it explaining the presence of villages-in-the-city concepts. It is noted that a hukou identity remains whether he works in rural or urban making it hard to know the exact urban population. Politically, urbanization is non-socio-economic but jurisdictional power is applied to control populace within their territorial boundary. Recommendation The researcher recommends that market-based factors should be applied to review Guangzhou urbanization process as it is more practical compared to political factors. Creation of new urban areas should only precede refurbishment and expansion of existing ones in order to create non-discriminatory workplaces for both hukou and natives. This will rid-out spatial urban development. Conclusion In conclusion, Positionality of both government and hukou system are used in the analysis of urbanization process in Guangzhou. Increased village-in –city concept of hukou is a power that has been used to shape the urbanization process. The government jurisdiction strategy of control regardless of hukou status is also seen as position that has led to the generation of power to control urbanization by demarcating new cities. Land sole government ownership has also revealed the source for control power. Positionality and power employed by both hukou and government have led to unethical practices as discussed above consequently leading to Guangzhou spatial urban development. Reference Advances in services science and services information technology. (2014). S.l.: Wit Press. American Mathematical Society., & Mathematical Association of America. (1940). Mathematical reviews. Lancaster, Pa: American Mathematical Society. Asian profile. (1973). Hong Kong: Asian Research Service. Chaléard, J.-L., & Université de Paris I: Panthéon-Sorbonne. (2014). Métropoles aux Suds, le défi des périphéries. Paris: Karthala. Davis, M. (2007). Planet of slums. London: Verso. International Labour Office. (1965). 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