Jiaoyufication: When gentrification goes to school in the Chinese inner city

Abstract

Gentrification, or the class-based restructuring of cities, is a process that has accrued a considerable historical depth and a wide geographical compass. But despite the existence of what is otherwise an increasingly rich literature, little has been written about connections between schools and the middle-class make-over of inner city districts. This paper addresses that lacuna. It does so in the specific context of the search by well-off middle class parents for places for their children in leading state schools in the inner city of Nanjing, one of China's largest urban centres, and it examines a process that we call here jiaoyufication. Jiaoyufication involves the purchase of an apartment in the catchment zone of a leading elementary school at an inflated price. Gentrifying parents generally spend nine years (covering the period of elementary and junior middle schooling) in their apartment before selling it on to a new gentrifying family at a virtually guaranteed good price without even any need for refurbishment. Jiaoyufication is made possible as a result of the commodification of housing alongside the increasingly strict application of a catchment zone policy of school enrolment. We show in this paper how jiaoyufication has led to the displacement of an earlier generation of mainly working class residents. We argue that the result has been a shift from an education system based on hierarchy and connections to one based on territory and wealth, but at the same time a strangely atypical sclerosis in the physical structure of inner city neighbourhoods. We see this as a variant form of gentrification.

Willing to pay more for high-quality schools?

“…This turns out that the rich can still obtain high-quality educational resources with their economic advantages, while the poor have few chances to get access to a prestigious school. Therefore, socio-economic polarization would be reinforced and then fixed in place (Wu, Q., Zhang, & Waley, 2016). (2) formulating spatial barriers and separating different income groups.…”

“…In other words, in most cases, restricted by household registration (or hukou in Chinese), only the children of the owners (rather than the tenants) of properties located in the attendance zone of school A are entitled to be enrolled in school A. A child's elementary school is determined by the location of parents' hukou (Wu, Q., Zhang, & Waley, 2016). Fettered by this, school-age children cannot freely attend primary schools in accordance with their parents' willingness.…”

“…Jiaoyufication has much broader meanings. More distinctive characteristics of jiaoyufication (e.g., small household size, high proportion of school-age children, female and old adults, well-off middle-class parents, high residential mobility, low interest in housing refurbishment and neighborhood improvement) can be found in (Wu, Q. et al, 2014;Wu, Q., Zhang, & Waley, 2016Wu, Q., Edensor, & Cheng, 2017).…”

Living in the “Ghost City”: Media Discourses and the Negotiation of Home in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China

“…Before moving to Kangbashi, they lived with his son and Han's parents in a three-bedroom apartment in Dongsheng district, the old city centre 25 km from Kangbashi. It is generally acknowledged that a high-quality education for children is of great importance, so many parents prefer to buy a flat in a school catchment zone [43]. To consolidate the social sustainability of Kangbashi and attract more residents, the municipal government provides residents in Kangbashi with privileged access to high-quality education.…”

Urban education differentiation and its socio-economic consequences: An internet–survey-based structural equation modeling analysis of new white collar workers in Nanjing, China

“…In China, a socialist educational system established after 1949 (but has been gradually eroded since 1979), while stressing egalitarianism and equal access, witnessed a trend whereby an emerging class of state bureaucrats and technocrats, who were, in a way, similar to the ruling classes in a capitalist society, took advantage of government policies to serve their own interests, e.g. the many privileges enjoyed by their families in respect to children's access to better educational quality, resources and opportunities (Wu, et al, 2015;Wu, 2008).…”