Qu Lei presented her work on urban villages in Shenzhen at a SPS Seminar on 15 January 2015.
‘Urban villages and affordable housing within the transitional period of Chinese cities: the case study of Shenzhen’
Abstract: Urban village is a very special type of neighbourhood, created in the fast urbanisation process in Chinese cities like Shenzhen in the past three decades, playing an essential role in accommodating floating population. Built by the villagers whose land was transformed into urban use, these high-density informal settlements have become places where the daily life of the migrant groups happens. Nowadays, urban villages located in the central urban districts are being considered as problematic neighbourhoods and to be largely redeveloped; while at the same time, large amount of affordable housing neighborhoods are being built mainly in peri-urban areas. This presentation will explore the possibilities of maintaining and improving urban villages as arrival cities for migrants.
