Governance Strategies for Informal Settlements in China: The Case of Guangzhou

Abstract

Informal settlements in developing countries have attracted widespread attention, and existing research is mainly concerned with the causes and evolution of informal settlements. However, few studies have focused on investigating the spatial governance strategies of informal settlements in order to understand the evolution of informal settlements in the context of institutional arrangements. The aim of this research is to develop a framework for the spatial governance of informal settlements to explain their causes. The research finds that informal settlements in China are influenced by an urban–rural dual land system in which the collective land ownership system means that villagers are ambiguous in their approach to land development. During rapid urbanization, villagers have adopted diverse land development strategies based on land rent incentives to attract capital investment and earn profits, which has led to the rapid spread of informal settlements.