Housing inequality in China: patterns and processes

China has experienced a rapid process of urban growth and its housing market has expanded greatly in the past 30 years. It is evident that urban housing consumption and overall housing quality have been elevated significantly in China. Yet, the improvement in housing provision is clearly not shared equally among all residents in Chinese cities. A burgeoning number of studies have been done to capture the social and spatial manifestation of unequal housing distribution in urban China and to explain the causal mechanism behind. Theoretically, these research can be summarized as two
distinguished analytical frameworks. One focuses on the housing delivery system and its historical evolution path, the other focuses on the housing assess capacity and constrains. This research will combine two frameworks. Based on a 300 people survey and an in-depth interview with 44 individuals conducted in two big cities in China, we attempt to unravel the hidden story behind the complicated mechanism, to truly understand the formation process of unequal urban housing distribution.

Faculty Supervisor:

Wei Xu

Student:

Li Yu

Partner:

Discipline:

Geography / Geology / Earth science

Sector:

University:

University of Lethbridge

Program:

Globalink