The peri-urban mosaic of Changping in metropolizing Beijing: Peasants' response and negotiation processes

Abstract

Metropolization in China today is a form of neoliberal transformation dictated by the state and market whose interactions determine their operational dynamics. This study aims to reinforce existing literature on the metropolization process in which a mosaic pattern of land uses has appeared in suburban and rural zones adjoining the Chinese metropolises. The paper first outlines the political economy behind China's metropolizing forces encroaching upon its disorderly and fragmented peri-urban rurality fused with modernity. This capital accumulation process has been characterized by an uneven distribution of profit gains among stakeholders made up of local peasantry, governments and property investors. Based on a case study of Changping, an urban district of Beijing, this study concludes with the Lefebvrian interpretation on the relationship between changes in land use functions and morphology in China's peri-urban zones. It highlights the unforeseen dynamics resulting from conflicts and negotiations between different stakeholders over property revaluation and land rights. The process of such unitary formality-informality relations is well illustrated in our conceptualization and case studies.