Making Urbanization Socially Inclusive: Integrating In-Situ Rural Development with City-Centered Urbanization

Abstract

Many rural counties have been transformed drastically in the dynamically growing coastal region where Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta are two rapidly urbanizing clusters. It is observed that there are two types of urbanization spatially intermingled within the municipal regions. One is the top-down penetration of urban projects sponsored by the urban state; the other is the bottom-up rural industrialization and non-agricultural development initiated by the village collective. Since the economic reforms launched in the early 1980s, villages close to cities in the regions with established industrial and market networks have been diversified progressively into non-agricultural economies, but villages in the less developed regions and less accessible areas remain largely in agricultural farming without much significant economic change.