Impacts of Chinese Urbanization on Farmers’ Social Networks: Evidence from the Urbanization Led by Farmland Requisition in Shanghai

Abstract

Following rapid urban expansion, numerous rural villages have been requisitioned for urban development in Chinese cities. During the prevailing urbanization process, displaced farmers within a village are wholly relocated into an urban resettlement housing district in transitional China. This study aims to examine whether those farmers still retain previous widespread and dense social networks in urban environment. The study is primarily a case study in Shanghai; data were obtained through semistructured interviews, questionnaire survey and field observations. The findings show that the urbanization process led by farmland requisition gives rise to four major shifts, which include residence shift from farmhouses to urban apartments, household registration identity shift from peasantry to urbanites, occupation shift from farming to nonfarming jobs, and resident structure shift from single village to multiple sources. Such sociospatial changes have transformed the basis and number of social ties, frequency and places of social contact, assistance available from social networks, and willingness for more social contact. It can be concluded that the vibrant and cohesive rural communities with densely interactive social networks have gradually dissolved in the urban environment during the resettlement from rural villages to urban housing districts.