Rural Urbanization in China: Administrative Restructuring and the Livelihoods of Urbanized Rural Residents

Abstract

Urbanization in China has involved not only the large-scale transfer of population from rural to urban areas through processes of labor migration and land dispossession, but also the re-designation of rural areas and populations as urban through top-down administrative conversion. Despite their significant role in accelerating rural urbanization, in situ processes of administrative-territorial change have remained under-examined in the literature. Drawing on a national survey of 40 townships, this article sheds light on the strategies by which territorial urbanization is achieved at the township level. By comparing the socioeconomic profiles, employment, land ownership, housing conditions, and social welfare coverage of 3,229 respondents, the article demonstrates how different pathways of territorial urbanization map onto differentiation in livelihoods among urbanized rural residents.