Privatizing the Urban Commons Under Ambiguous Property Rights in China

Is Marketization a Remedy to the Tragedy of the Commons

Bibliographic Data

ID2806280
AuthorsYiming Wang (0000-0002-9114-1540, Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning and Design Institute), Jie Chen (0000-0002-9254-4413, Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning and Design Institute, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume80
Issue2
Pages503-547
Publication date2021-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Economics and Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9246 • E-ISSN: 1536-7150
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/ajes.12381
OpenAlexW3177283109
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited80

The debate on the vitality of the commons remains unsettled, but the attempt by the Chinese state to develop a marketized property rights system to address the so-called tragedy of the commons has backfired. In Shanghai and other major Chinese cities, the economic transformation has led to an ambiguous property rights system that creates complex and uncertain property relations between the state and private land developers. The resulting ineffective uses and conflicts in the commons are well known, but how to address them is contested. Can privatization drive better use of urban land in China? How do the ambiguous property relations between the state and the private sector affect the spatial design, management, use, and quality of the urban commons in Chinese cities? This article addresses these questions by engaging theoretical debates on how the commons should be held, analyzing the origin and key features of the ambiguous property relation in China, and drawing on a property rights approach to investigate the empirical case of a specific privately owned and managed urban park in Shanghai. The results show that not only does the commodification of property create inherently pervasive ambiguity in the land market, marketization also denies citizens their rights to public space. These findings raise fundamental questions about the idea that marketizing land is a sure tonic to address social problems. The article puts the case for reconsidering the institutionalization of the urban commons

China · Commodification · Commons · Economic system · Economics · Economy · Law and economics · Marketization · Political economy · Political science · Private property · Property rights · Sociology · Tragedy of the commons · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Law · Law in Society and Culture · Urban Planning and Governance

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