Local Capitalisms, Local Citizenship and Translocality: Rescaling from Below in the Pearl River Delta Region, China

• Published in: International journal of urban and regional research 2007-06, Vol.31 (2), p.280-302
• Main Authors: SMART, ALAN, LIN, GEORGE C.S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Asia; Bgi / Prodig; Cadres; Capitalism; China; Citizenship; Economic Change; Economic reform; Local Citizenship; Localism; Loyalty; Migrant Workers; Migrants; Minority & ethnic groups; Parochialism; Peoples Republic of China; Political Economy; Politics of Scale; Regional studies; Residents; Safety; Sociology; Towns; Translocality; Transnational Urbanism; Urban studies; Villages
• ISSN: 0309-1317; 1468-2427
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2427.2007.00732.x

Chinese economic reforms have profoundly changed the scale at which things get done. Much of the existing literature on scale has concentrated on the politics of rescaling from above. Less has been written about rescaling initiatives from below, the focus of this study. It distinguishes three important localisms. Local capitalisms treats capitalism as subordinate to local social and political processes that provide crucial conditions of existence. Local citizenship sees processes of entitlement and exclusion as accomplished locally rather than through national frameworks. Translocality describes the ways in which claims are made on the loyalties of those possessing capital but residing elsewhere and the promotion of the place through image‐building and physical/social infrastructural enhancements. These three distinct localisms overlap and interact in a variety of ways to shape a new social and spatial order in post‐reform China. A detailed study of the practices of localism in the Dongguan city‐region reveals the ways in which the emergence of capitalism has been dependent on pre‐existing social connections and based on villages and townships. The entitlements of citizenship are polarized between the local hukou population and the migrant workers irrespective of the national definition of social safety net and regardless of the physical presence of the individuals. Résumé En Chine, les réformes économiques ont profondément modifié l'échelon auquel les choses se font. Les publications traitant de cet aspect se consacrent en général aux politiques de redimensionnement venues des instances supérieures, et abordent plus rarement les initiatives venues d'en bas, objets de cette étude. Cette dernière distingue trois localismes importants: les capitalismes locaux, le capitalisme apparaissant subordonné aux processus sociaux et politiques locaux qui déterminent les conditions d'existence; la citoyenneté locale pour qui les processus d'habilitation et d'exclusion s'effectuent au plan local et non en fonction de cadres nationaux; la translocalité qui décrit comment est sollicitée la loyauté de ceux qui possèdent le capital mais résident ailleurs, et comment des projets de création d'image et d'infrastructure matérielle ou sociale dynamisent la promotion du lieu. Ces trois localismes se chevauchent et interagissent diversement, façonnant un nouvel ordre social et spatial dans la Chine de l'après‐réforme. Une étude détaillée du localisme pratiqué dans la ville de Don