Bingqin Li

Whose games? The costs of being “Olympic citizens” in Beijing

Mega-events such as the Olympic Games tend to be accompanied by copious media coverage of the negative social impacts of these events, and people in the affected areas are often thought to share similar experiences. The research in this paper, which focused on the Beijing Summer Olympic Games of 2008, unpacks the heterogeneous groups in a particular sector of the housing market to gain a better understanding of how the Games affected different resident groups. The paper critically examines the experience of migrant tenants and Beijing citizens (landlords in particular) in “villages-in-the-city” (known as cheongzhongcun), drawing on their first-hand accounts of the citywide preparations for the Games and the pervasive demolition threats to their neighbourhoods. The paper argues that the Beijing Summer Olympiad produced an uneven, often exclusionary, Games experience for a certain segment of the urban population.

Intergenerational Housing Support Between Retired Old Parents and their Children in Urban China

Intergenerational support between parents and children in Chinese cities has been dramatically affected by recent social changes. This paper investigates the changing pattern of intergenerational housing support between retired old parents and their children, and the legacy of public housing in shaping this pattern. By initially establishing an up-to-date picture of intergenerational housing support between retired old parents and their children, it seeks to determine how this support depends on whether parents have previously been allocated public housing and, if so, on whether they have disposed of it or have continued to occupy it. A survey with 1000 retired old people from Tianjin in 2009 is used for the analysis. A support flow model is used to go beyond studying housing support per se, and to study the flow of intergenerational support in both directions and in different forms.

Governing urban climate change adaptation in China

There is a growing, although still far from comprehensive, literature within China on the impacts of climate change in urban areas; also an evolving policy framework at national level to address these concerns and an increased interest in climate change adaptation from many local governments. This paper summarizes the urban risks and vulnerabilities highlighted by the literature, and reviews central and local government responses. It then assesses policy response, including how this considers vulnerability and future risks, formulates an adaptation strategy, engages stakeholders and assesses adaptive capacity. This shows how the Chinese system limits the influence on climate change adaptation of residents and small businesses, and of social scientists. The reasons for this include the tendency to use climate change as an economic growth engine (and GDP growth remains the most important factor for assessing local government officials’ performance), little provision for participation in policy-making, and weak post-implementation evaluation once a policy has been scaled up at national level. These have affected the quality of evidence-based policy-making and make it difficult to draw lessons from unsuccessful practice.

Employers as landlords for rural-to-urban migrants in Chinese cities

In Chinese cities, employer-provided housing has played an important part in accommodating low-income, rural-to-urban migrants. Employer housing is often used to study other problems such as management style or worker psychology. In this paper we intend to examine employer-provided housing for its own sake. We use two surveys in the cities of Taiyuan and Tianjin in China to understand the reasons why Chinese employers want to provide housing for employees, the conditions of this type of housing and whether workers are satisfied with it. In doing so, we may identify areas that suffer from serious market failure and will discuss possible solutions to the problems.

Governing urbanization and the New Urbanization Plan in China

This paper explains the reasons behind the growing social tension and increased number of conflicts in China after a good performance in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. In this paper, we map out the issues with old urbanization (1978–2014) and the problems unsolved by past policy, and analyse whether the new policy changes introduced by the New Urbanization Plan (2014–2020) may help to deal with those problems. We argue that the tensions that evolve into conflicts are often a result of unaddressed social anxiety. Using money to purchase social stability can only be part of the solution. There need to be more serious attempts to improve governance, which involve: improving multi-level governance and inter-regional coordination, enhancing policy transparency and rule by law, adjusting the level of redistribution, and integrating rural and urban community governance structures.

Motivating service improvement with awards and competitions - hygienic city campaigns in China:

Awards and competitions are often used to motivate public servants, and this paper examines how the central government of China uses these to try and motivate cities to improve public hygiene. The authors argue that apart from improving performance,(1) awards and competitions are good at motivating user participation and spreading good practice. However, the design of the schemes used in China tends to prioritize disproportionately the winning mentality, and sometimes causes high costs and social tension.Awards and competitions are often used to motivate public servants, and this paper examines how the central government of China uses these to try and motivate cities to improve public hygiene. The authors argue that apart from improving performance, (1) awards and competitions are good at motivating user participation and spreading good practice. However, the design of the schemes used in China tends to prioritize disproportionately the winning mentality, and sometimes causes high costs and social tension.

Migrants as a source of revenue in small towns in China

This paper uses the cases of four small towns in Shanxi province, PRC, to examine how domestic migration has been used to boost the local economies and generate local revenues. However, how to govern migration is not a priority and as a result, the outcome of migration governance is very much affected by the ways in which towns interact with the higher authorities.This paper uses the cases of four small towns in Shanxi province, PRC, to examine how domestic migration has been used to boost the local economies and generate local revenues. However, how to govern migration is not a priority and as a result, the outcome of migration governance is very much affected by the ways in which towns interact with the higher authorities.

Motivating intersectoral collaboration with the Hygienic City Campaign in Jingchang, China

Intersectoral collaboration is important for policy implementation. However, effective collaboration may be difficult to achieve because of poor internal drive to collaborate, disagreements on framing the problem, institutional constraints and poor leadership. This article examines how competitive campaigns stimulate intersectoral collaboration in the context of healthy urban planning. We examine the case of the Creating Hygienic City Campaign in Jingchang, China from 2006 to 2011, illustrating how the city resorted to intersectoral collaboration to achieve the multiple targets and thus improved public and environmental hygiene. The paper argues that a competitive campaign, when well-organized, can overcome some of the barriers to intersectoral collaboration by building a campaign organization team, legitimizing the leadership, and enhancing public awareness and involvement. The article also suggests that the campaign approach in its current form failed to involve local authorities in setting the targets and was unable to sustain certain efforts.

Disability, technology innovation and social development in China and Australia

ABSTRACT This paper examines the turn to technology innovation in disability policy, as it has manifested in the accessibility and digital inclusion agendas in China and Australia. It provides a review of the disability policy changes and related initiatives in both countries to offer insights for broader discussions of digital technology innovation and social policy in Asia. We argue that while governments take pivotal roles in formulating and implementing digital disability policies, people with disabilities apply their own agency to take advantage of market opportunities through economic participation in digital economy. The state responds positively to the agency of people with disabilities in social development and participation by opening opportunities for research grants, start-up funds, publicities and policy lobbying. It is here we see the hope in such a collaborative and mutually constitutive approach to innovative social policies that aim at inclusive and sustainable growth – something that deserves concerted, comparative research and evaluation by policy scholars.

Coordinating Urban and Rural Development in China – Learning from Chengdu

This book examines the experience of how the city of Chengdu in China has managed to capitalize on the opportunities provided by urbanization by using planning and policies to respond to the challe...