Characterising Social Integration Between Rural Migrants and Local Residents in Urban China: An Exploratory Social Network Analysis of Care Workers in Shanghai

Abstract

Recentdecades have witnessed large migration flows from rural to urban China. This chapter explores the potential of social network analysis (SNA) for assessing and understanding social integration in contemporary Chinese cities. We begin by presenting the background and the complex, multi-dimensional and inter-connected factors that typically affect segregation and inequality within urban China. SNA is introduced as a potential analytical approach for characterising and examining the ongoing dynamic social integration process. We discuss some initial findings based upon an exploratory case study in Shanghai on multi-dimensional segregation in the social care sector. We also identify the limitations of SNA as a relatively innovative method for researching social integration and call for a mixed-methods approach towards its application in examining the intricacy and complexity of social integration in contemporary urban China.

Research on the relationship between social capital and sustainable livelihood: evidences from reservoir migrants in the G Autonomous Prefecture, China

“…Neighborhood relationship is not only the coexistence of each other in spatial position but also signify social connection, neighborhood relationship, which can be regarded as an external extension of family relationship in a sense (Zhang, 2022). There is no doubt that the relocation of migrants will have a significant impact on the neighborhood relationship, showing a double change, i.e., harmony and contradiction coexist (Liu, 2015).…”

Validation of the Basic Supporting Role of Traffic Networks in Regional Factor Flow: A Case Study of Zhejiang Province

“…The relevant calculation methods have experienced changes from the interlocking network model (used by GaWC) to the gravity model, and then to the real scale of connections between cities [41][42][43]. Some scholars also improved the calculation method of network relevance based on the gravity model, social network analysis and other methods, to reveal the deeper spatial organization of urban networks [44,45]. The emergence of new methods does not represent the obsolescence of old methods, but the application is different.…”

“…This shows that geographical space still has restrictions on space of flow. In recent years, some scholars have introduced quantitative methods to analyze the differences in urban networks from the perspective of mobile space and geographical space, and proposed that the constraints of space-time distance should not be ignored while paying attention to network connections [44].…”