Beyond Property Rights and Displacement: China’s Neoliberal Transformation and Housing Inequalities

Abstract

Based on the empirical findings from the historic inner city of Nanjing, this chapter argues that China’s neoliberal urban housing reform has led to the conflicts associated with property rights and forced displacement, and that it is important to pay attention to the understanding of by-products such as a shortage of public housing in suitable locations and contradictions between pro-homeownership propaganda and the reality of housing as a basic human need. The recent state-led housing provision restructuring under the ‘egalitarian’ banner of ‘indemnification’ or ‘shantytown renovation’ has served to speed up the forced displacement and resettlement of residents without evoking a new wave of social contestations. In this regard, this chapter further argues that it can be restrictive to solely define China’s economic and housing reforms as conforming to developmental capitalism or state-sponsored neoliberalism. It is proposed that a more embracing and evolutionary stance should be employed to gauge the ongoing neoliberal mutations and variegated housing policies.