Autonomous Redevelopment

Moving the Masses to Remove Nail Households

Bibliographic Data

ID6008656
AuthorsY Deng (0000-0001-9017-9005, Nanjing University, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume43
Issue5
Pages494-522
Publication date2017-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueModern China (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0097-7004 • E-ISSN: 1552-6836
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0097700416683901
OpenAlexW2290761301
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited35

Autonomous redevelopment is a new approach to demolishing shantytowns in China. It draws on the desire for urban renewal on the part of most residents and encourages dingzihu, or “nail households,” to vacate their property. This is accomplished by formulating rules that link jumpstarting community redevelopment to submission by nail households. Additionally, an ad hoc grassroots organization, the Autonomous Redevelopment Committee (ARC), is often established to facilitate “demolition and relocation” 拆迁. To persuade recalcitrant homeowners, ARC activists rely on emotion work, marginalizing strategies, and collective harassment. Many homeowners, who are initially determined to resist such appeals, ultimately succumb to the power of the masses. Autonomous redevelopment is officially acclaimed as an innovative mass-line approach, relying on a majority of the masses to work on the minority. It suggests a more sophisticated style of authoritarian governance, whereby local authorities use rules, social ties, and grassroots organizations to control popular resistance and to facilitate policy implementation

Authoritarianism · Business · Civil engineering · Corporate governance · Democracy · Demolition · Grassroots · Mass line · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Redevelopment · Sociology · Work (physics · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Engineering · Law · Public Administration

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