Social differentiation and spatial mixture in a transitional city - Kunming in southwest China

Abstract

Socio-spatial segregation, and particularly racial and ethnic segregation, has been extensively studied in the Western context but is less researched for Chinese cities, particularly those in less developed regions. The city of Kunming in remote southwest China is characterized by a transition from a socialist manufacturing center to a free market service economy and the strong presence of a diversity of ethnic groups. Kunming provides an opportunity to examine the similarities and disparities in the socio-spatial landscape compared to well-developed cities in China and other post-socialist contexts as well as those in the West. In this paper, population census data at the community level from 2000 together with its spatial boundary data are used to create 39 demographic, educational, occupational and housing variables for 431 communities. Principal component analysis, hierarchical clustering and spatial segregation indicators are combined in order to identify, classify and analyse the spatial segregation of diverse social groups. The study finds that, unusually for Chinese cities, ethnic minority and gender are significant factors, and it demonstrates that both spatial mixture and social differentiation simultaneously characterize Kunming.

Emerging divided cities in China: Socioeconomic segregation in Shanghai, 2000–2010

“…While sociospatial differentiation is unfolding in multiple dimensions, the role of institutional legacies remains influential. For example, residential segregation has remained largely tenure-based, where work units and public rental housing are still important in shaping the social space of cities (Li and Wu, 2008; Madrazo and Van Kempen, 2012), while the confluence of state and market forces has led to a complex combination of segregation and mixing (Wu et al, 2017).…”

Residential Spatial Differentiation Based on Urban Housing Types—An Empirical Study of Xiamen Island, China

“…Residential differentiation between social groups was found based on population census data at the community level [1,14].…”

“…Unlike most previous studies [3,11,12,14], which conduct residential differentiation only from single aspect or single scale, this paper aims to analyze urban residential differentiation from multi-scales and multi-aspects. Xiamen was selected because it was designated as one of the first four Special Economic Zones in China in 1980 and it has experienced housing reform over the past three decades.…”

Understanding different levels of segregation in urban China: a comparative study among 21 cities in Guangdong province

“…Segregation levels are somewhat higher in larger and more affluent cities (20 largest cities in China). Most of the knowledge, however, is based on evidence from advanced capitalist cities, or economically well-developed cities in China (see Gu, 2001;Li & Wu, 2008;Wu et al, 2017) while cities in a less mature stage of development are considered as urban "other" and remain out of sight. Although the world city approach has much to offer in seeking to conceptualize generalizable models of urbanity (Amin & Graham, 1997;Bell & Jayne, 2009), it usually ignores both the variety of spatial patterns and functions as well as the different underlying process and mechanism of small cities (Peck, 2015;Robinson, 2005Robinson, , 2006Robinson, , 2011.…”