Access to Housing and Community Resources in a Chinese City

住房是一种稀缺而宝贵的资源，特别是在较不发达国家的城市群。本研究将考察居住在中国大城市天津的人们获得住房的机会和社区的质量。在过去的40年里，中国的城市是在国家社会主义框架下发展起来的，在这个框架下，平等主义的意识形态得到了推广，有组织的住房和服务分配系统是基于公共投资而不是私人投资。指导这项研究的核心研究问题是，在这样一个系统中，住房和城市基础设施方面的不平等存在于何种程度，以及与更有利的结果（即更好的住房和更好的社区）相关的因素是什么。这项研究将为了解国家社会主义经济制度的不平等基础提供重要见解。它还为未来研究对正在中国开始的市场经济转型的影响提供了一个重要的基线。

Housing is a scarce and valued resource particularly in the urban agglomerations of less developed countries. This study will examine access to housing and the quality of neighborhoods in which people live in a large Chinese city, Tianjin. Chinese cities have developed over the last forty years within a state socialist framework where an egalitarian ideology was promoted, and organized systems of housing and service allocation were based on public rather than private investments. The central research questions guiding this study is what inequalities in housing and urban infrastructure survive in such a system, and what are the factors associated with more favorable outcomes, that is better housing and better neighborhoods. This study will provide important insights into the bases of inequality characteristic of a state socialist economic system. It also provides a crucial baseline for future studies on the impact on the transition to a market economy which is beginning in China.