Doctoral Dissertation Research: Informal Recycling as a Livelihood Strategy Among Recent Rural-Urban Migrants

本博士论文项目研究了农村流动人口通过非正式回收和垃圾收集建立生计和进入城市空间的方式。虽然回收利用通过从城市中清除废物和将材料重新用于商品生产而创造价值，但发展中国家和新兴国家的新农村-城市移民往往被已建立的城市居民视为“不文明”。因此，流动回收者被矛盾地客观化为企业家美德的典范和不卫生的城市闯入者。在一些国家，由于国家实体试图控制城市垃圾和城市内农村移民的流动，紧张局势出现了。该项目认为，城市空间和废物的获取是流动回收者成功的关键决定因素，将流动、公民身份和身份的转变经验和概念与影响他们生计的结构联系起来。该项目建立在非正式回收创造社会和经济价值代表城市公民战略的假设基础上，并揭示了现代城市发展的国家和公众愿景背后的矛盾。本研究以上海城市回收为例，采用调查、统计和话语分析、访谈、焦点小组和流动人种学等混合方法，将中国城市发展、移民和区域地理研究结合起来。本项目希望回答的两个研究问题是：(1)上海大都市的非正式回收是如何形成的？(2)以回收利用为生计的新城市居民对城市空间和资源的获取如何受到这些结构的制约、限制和推动？本研究通过展示非正式回收网络的好处和价值，以及它们在稳定新城市人口方面的潜力，促进了中美两国科学家和政策制定者之间的跨文化和跨学科研究。它主张积极承认边缘化群体对可持续城市发展的贡献。论文将以中文和英文出版，并分发给当地大学院系和上海社会科学院。该研究的学术文章将提交给美国学术期刊，并在发展、移民和中国研究会议上发表。作为博士论文研究进步奖，该项目为有前途的学生建立社会科学研究事业提供支持。

This doctoral dissertation project investigates the ways in which rural migrants establish livelihoods and gain access to urban space via informal recycling and trash collecting. Although recycling contributes value by removing waste from cities and channeling materials back into commodity production, new rural-urban migrants in developing and emerging countries are often viewed as 'uncivilized' by established urban residents. Thus, migrant recyclers are paradoxically objectified as both paragons of entrepreneurial virtue and unsanitary urban interlopers. In some countries tensions arise as state entities seek to control flows of both urban waste and rural migrants within the city. Arguing that access to urban space and waste is a crucial determinant for the success of migrant recyclers, this project connects the shifting experiences and conceptions of mobility, citizenship and identity with the structures impacting their livelihoods. This project builds on the hypothesis that informal recycling's creation of social and economic value represents a strategy of urban citizenship, and reveals the contradictions underlying state and public visions of modern urban development. By considering the case of urban recycling in Shanghai, this research uses a mixed methodology of surveys, statistical and discourse analysis, interviews, focus groups, and mobile ethnography, uniting studies in urban development, migration, and the regional geography of China. There are two research questions the project hopes to answer are: (1) how is informal recycling structured in metropolitan Shanghai? (2) How is access to urban space and resources for newly urban residents engaged in recycling as a livelihood conditioned, limited, and enabled by these structures?This research promotes cross-cultural and interdisciplinary research among China and US scientists and policy-makers by demonstrating the benefits and values of informal recycling networks and they in which these have the potential for stabilizing newly urban populations. It argues for positive recognition of the contributions of marginalized groups to sustainable urban development. The resulting dissertation will be published in Mandarin Chinese and English, and disseminated to local university departments and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS). Scholarly articles produced from this research will be submitted to US academic journals and presented at conferences of development, migration, and China studies. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this project provides support to a promising student working towards establishing a social science research career.