A zone of exception? Interrogating the hybrid housing regime and nested enclaves in China-Singapore Suzhou-Industrial-Park

Abstract

Focusing on the highly ‘successful’ China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), this study taps into a less explored topic of housing development in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) through the conceptual lenses of housing regime and enclave urbanism. Drawing on empirical evidence garnered from interviews, survey, observation, and secondary sources, this study transcends methodological nationalism and cityism to present a situated and close-up examination of housing regime at the intra-urban level. It also enriches the concept of enclave urbanism by delving into the nested enclave structure in SIP. A hybrid housing regime featuring a (neo)liberal logic in the disguise of the semi-social democratic regime for landless farmers and a productivist regime for the variegated workforce is identified. Two key players – the local state and transnational corporations, via formal and informal institutions, gave rise to a nested enclave structure. Instead of ‘a zone of exception’, SIP epitomises the ubiquitous neoliberalisation and aggravated precarity endured by low-skilled migrants, and foregrounds housing stratification and segregation within SEZs.