Fictitious commodification of land to solve rural crises

Lessons from an experiment in rural Chengdu, China

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8945324
AutoresRenhao Yang (0000-0001-7785-3413, Southwest University), Yunpeng Zhang (0009-0006-8240-5299, KU Leuven, autor de correspondencia)
Año2023
Volumen143
Páginas103769-103769
Fecha de publicación2023-05-12
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaGeoforum (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0016-7185 • E-ISSN: 1872-9398
EditorialElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103769
OpenAlexW4382292764
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas14
Referencias citadas40

This article examines the Chinese government’s ongoing controlled experiment to empower rural communities and revitalise rural spaces through the fictitious commodification of rural collective operational construction land (i.e., land used for commercial or operational businesses). We show how local governments in Pidu, one of the selected experiment sites, exploited the political opening to pursue their own landed interests and, in doing so, continued to exploit and marginalise rural communities. The competing interests of local and central governments in rural land commodification—combined with the ambiguous regulatory framework for this type of rural land and the overall conditions of the land market—frustrated the complete and effective commodification of such land. Broadening these lessons to experiments in general, we suggest that effective monitoring mechanisms centring processual and distributional justice are needed to keep experiments in check and realise their potential in bringing about positive changes

Business · China · Commodification · Economic growth · Economic system · Economics · Government (linguistics · Local government · Market economy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Rural area · Sociology · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Hydropower, Displacement, Environmental Impact · Law · Public Administration · Water Governance and Infrastructure