Regulation beyond formal regulation: Spatial gathering and surviving situation of the informal sectors in urban village case study in Xiadu Village of Guangzhou City

Abstract

The most important characteristics of the informal sectors,based upon the general knowledge and existing research,are that they are out of the reach of the formal regulation founded by governments.We found that this is partly wrong for the situation of the informal sectors in the urban villages of Guangzhou City.We chose Xiadu,one of the typical urban villages of Guangzhou,as a study case,and conducted deep research mainly through the methods of field investigation,mapping,interview,etc.We also used some materials from various websites in our analysis.The main economic sectors of the informal sectors in Xiadu are retail,restaurant,barber's,photocopying,and other neighborhood services.One quarter of the informal sectors are outdoor fakers,the other three quarters are indoor shops.Most of the informal sectors are spatially distributed near the entrance from outside surrounding areas to the urban village and along the main roads inside it.The main reasons for the gathering of the informal sectors within urban villages are: loose regulation from the municipal government provided easy business environment;cheap houses provided right space;and good accessibility provided market demand.The everyday surviving state of the informal sectors is influenced by a system consisting of players of the municipal government(the real players are its departments involved in urban management,urban planning,and land use administration,etc.),local community(or village) autonomy,local ruffian group,the local registered residents of the village,and the surrounding areas' residents.The municipal government,according to its various major political aims,is exerting sometimes direct and sometimes indirect,but the greatest influence on the informal sectors;the local community autonomy protects and supports the informal sectors mainly because of seeking the economic interests from them;the local ruffians are exploiting the informal sectors;the local registered residents of the urban villages support and help the informal sectors because they are renting their houses to them;the surrounding areas' residents are partly customers and partly sufferers(from bad sanitation,noise,and pollution,etc.) of the informal sector,so they are at most time opposed to it.We conclude that the existence and operation of the system is affecting the real surviving state of the informal sectors in the urban village.It could be understood as a special regulation system different from the generally known regulation,also from that of pure informal governance out of governmental regulation.