“To Choose a House Means to Choose a Lifestyle.” The Consumption of Housing and Class‐Structuration in Urban China

Abstract

The introduction of land prices and a real estate market in the reform period have led to residential differentiations in previously largely homogenous Chinese cities. Based on qualitative data from 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork in an upscale Beijing suburb, in this paper I draw attention to the agency of urban residents in this process. I argue that housing choices in China today are deeply embedded in and related to a larger socio‐cultural and spatial reconfiguration of Chinese society. The new urban middle class has developed specific ideas about their living environment and life‐style. They aspire to have green space, better air quality, and spaciousness, among other physical characteristics, but also privacy and exclusivity in their new places of residence. I show that residential compounds have become the basis for identity and lifestyle formation, crucial in the process of social differentiation, which in turn underline and reinforce growing disparities in Chinese society. Over and above the outcome of economic restructuring and political decision making, residential differentiation in China today is a social practice that marks urban professionals' status and supports their new modern, urban identities. In addition, this social practice also has an impact on Beijing's suburbanization process.

Producing nature for public: Land-based urbanization and provision of public green spaces in China

“…In addition to the substantial risks brought by the high dependence on land finance, such as pushing up housing prices, aggravating urban-rural conflicts, and threatening the protection of arable land (Cao et al, 2008;Cao, Lv, Zheng, and Wang, 2014;Timberlake, Wei, Ma, & Hao, 2014;Wang, Chen, et al, 2012;Wang, Thill, et al, 2012;Wu et al, 2015;Yang & Pang, 2011;Yu, Wu, Zheng, Zhang, & Shen, 2014;Zhang et al, 2014), the social inequality pertaining to public accessibility to urban green spaces, an emergent problem in Chinese cities (Wolch, Byrne, & Newell, 2014), might be exacerbated. While homeowners inside well-greened residential compounds can enjoy adequate accessibility to their privileged green spaces in their gated precincts (Fleischer, 2007;Wu, 2004), sometimes over-generously provided by real estate developers, outsiders (those lower-income earners who cannot afford new commercial housing) (Breitung, 2012) might be facing a deprivation of public green spaces during the process that potential or even existent public green land is leased out to maximize municipal land revenues. A recent study suggested that many residents in Shanghai lack access to parks (Yin & Xu, 2009).…”

Understanding Admitted Doctoral Students’ Institutional Choices: Student Experiences versus Faculty and Staff Perceptions

“…Cultural globalization research includes a substantial literature on consumpdon in LIC countries such as Russia (Oushakine 2000;Pático 2005), China (Fleischer 2007;Watson 1997), Georgia (Manning and Uphsashvili 2007), India (Mazzarella 2003), Niger (Arnould 1989), Trinidad (Miller 1997(Miller , 1998, Belize (Wilk 2006), and Turkey (Öncül997; Üstüner and Holt 2007). This literature focuses on research questions that differ from our focus on theorizing the mechanics of status consumpdon within LICs.…”

Toward a Theory of Status Consumption in Less Industrialized Countries

“…Cultural globalization research includes a substantial literature on consumption in LIC countries such as Russia (Oushakine 2000;Patico 2005), China (Fleischer 2007;Watson 1997), Georgia (Manning and Uplisashvili 2007), India (Mazzarella 2003), Niger (Arnould 1989), Trinidad (Miller 1997(Miller , 1998, Belize (Wilk 2006), andTurkey (Ö ncü 1997;Ü stüner and Holt 2007). This literature focuses on research questions that differ from our focus on theorizing the mechanics of status consumption within LICs.…”