Doctoral Dissertation Research: China's Emerging Slums During Urban Expansion: The Case of Beijing, Henancun, and Recycling

从1992年到2011年底的20年间，中国经济以每年10%以上的速度增长，但大量的中国农民工在城市环境中面临住房、就业、教育和其他基本权利方面的歧视和排斥。联合国估计，中国超过四分之一的城市人口生活在贫民窟，尽管政府的言论和许多研究报告一直否认中国存在大规模的贫民窟。其他研究提供的证据表明，农村移民仍然是中国最弱势的群体，在社会、经济、政治和空间上处于边缘化地位。与许多发展中国家的情况不同，中国的国有土地所有权、对棚户区的专制控制以及与户口相关的住房不公正，破坏了大多数贫民窟相对稳定的空间和时间特征，并创造了一个模糊的、往往隐藏的城市下层阶级生活经历的地理位置。该博士论文研究项目将以贫民窟和民族飞地研究为基础，并将开发一个原型贫民窟框架，以了解中国贫民窟的重新配置以及移民在快速城市化环境中维持生计和业务的机制。这位博士生将把北京的河南移民作为该项目的中心案例研究。自20世纪80年代中期第一次移民到北京以来，由于农村户籍身份、有限的经济手段和歧视，河南移民逐渐进入了非正规的回收行业，并在北京形成了各种各样的河南飞地。从20世纪80年代末到2010年代初，这些飞地经历了反复的拆除和搬迁过程。该学生将使用基于土地利用、观测、问卷调查和访谈数据的制图和空间回归模型来研究北京河南贫民窟的时空地理和内部动态。他将特别关注确定北京原始贫民窟的地理位置，哪些结构性因素导致了流动人口社区的空间和时间动态，以及他们在北京维持生计的能力，以及弱势群体在社会、政治、空间和环境受到威胁的社区中确保生计和城市权利的策略。该项目将采用跨学科的方法，为中国贫民窟的地理研究提供新的信息和见解，这方面的研究很少。它将纳入关注贫民窟、飞地以及来自发展中国家和发达国家的移民的文献，并将使用时空框架解释原始贫民窟在中国背景下的发展和功能。该项目将提供关于快速扩张的城市中贫民窟社区的发展和面临的空间环境挑战的实用信息，并将有助于确定解决中国城市不平等和不公正问题的政策，以及促进移民融入社会的方法。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

For two decades from 1992 to the end of 2011, China has maintained economic growth at rates of ten percent or more per year, but very large numbers of China's rural-to-urban migrants face discrimination and exclusion in urban environments in terms of housing, job opportunities, education, and other basic entitlements. The United Nations estimated that more than one-quarter of China's urban population lives in slums, even as government rhetoric and many research reports consistently have denied the existence of large-scale slums in China. Other studies have provided evidence showing that rural migrants remain the most disadvantaged group in China, experiencing socially, economically, politically, and spatially marginalized status. Unlike conditions in many developing countries, China's state land ownership, authoritarian control of squatting, and hukou-related housing injustice have undermined the relatively stable spatial and temporal qualities that characterize most slums and created an obscure, often-hidden geography of the lived experiences of the urban underclass. This doctoral dissertation research project will be based on slum and ethnic enclave studies and will develop a proto-slum framework to understand the reconfiguration of slums in China and the mechanisms whereby migrants sustain their livelihoods and businesses in rapidly urbanizing environments. The doctoral student will consider Henan migrants in Beijing as the project's central case study. Following their first wave of migration to Beijing in the mid-1980s, the rural household registration status, limited means, and discrimination have gradually channeled Henan migrants into the informal recycling business and have led to the formation of various Henan enclaves in Beijing. From the late 1980s to the early 2010s, these enclaves have been subjected to repeated demolition and relocation processes. The student will use mapping and spatial regression modeling based on land use, observations, and questionnaire and interview data to investigate the spatial-temporal geography and the internal dynamics within slum-condition Henan enclaves in Beijing. He will focus special attention on ascertaining the geography of the proto-slums in Beijing and what structural factors account for the spatial and temporal dynamics of migrant communities and their ability to sustain livelihoods in Beijing as well as the strategies disadvantaged groups use to secure their livelihoods and right to the city within socially, politically, and spatially excluded and environmentally threatened communities.This project will draw on an interdisciplinary approach to develop new information and insights into the geography of Chinese slums, which have rarely been studied. It will incorporate literature focusing on slums, enclaves, and migration from developing and developed countries and will use a spatial-temporal framework explain how proto-slums develop and function in the Chinese context. The project will provide practical information on the development of and spatial-environmental challenges faced by slum-condition communities in rapidly expanding cities, and it will help to identify policies addressing urban inequality and injustice in China as well as ways to facilitate integration of migrants into the society. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.