Forced-Urbanization: The Alienation of Urbanization in China

Aims: Forced-urbanization that deviates from the intended purposes can lead to the alienation of some societies, especially those that had been forced to migrate to urban areas. This holds potential threats to the sustainable development of the urbanized communities. This likelihood mainly comes through the erosion of well being rights and lack of improvement of social welfare for migrated communities. Rooted in GDP-oriented mechanical paradigm, forced-urbanization damages the dynamic mechanism of urban. The New-style Urbanization strategy proposed by Chinese Government in 2011 which seeks to curb the forced-urbanization. The research tries to answer the question i.e. could the New-style Urbanization really curb the forced-urbanization in China?
Study Design: China’ urbanization is a process of wellbeing rights erosion which is described as Forced-urbanization. The research begins with the harm caused by Forced-urbanization, and then focuses on the generation logic of Forced-urbanization. After that, a discussion about the effect of New-Style Urbanization Strategy to curb the Forced-urbanization is taken.
Methodology: This research did a random survey of 210 landless farmers in some provinces such as Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan and Fujian etc. in 2010 and 2011. The main aim of the survey was to understand some special issues, such as the identity and role confirmation, recognition of urban life and the emotional memory of the respondents.
Results: Forced-urbanization has caused serious harm to farmers, including restriction on economic rights, violation of political rights, and deprivation of migrants’ cultural rights. The foundation of civil social supports was damaged as well in the process. The primary reason of forced-urbanization is that the value paradigm of urbanization in China was GDP-oriented rather than wellbeing-oriented. In order to curb the forced-urbanization, Chinese Government established New-style Urbanization Strategy in 2012. The random survey shows that some kinds of risks of forced-urbanization still exist in the implementation process of New-style Urbanization strategy.
Conclusion: It is necessary to avoid the unintended purposes of New-style Urbanization by breaking the generation logic of forced-urbanization. Some local governments have offered certain successful experiences. But there is still a long way to go because of some real constraints. However, the way out of forced-urbanization in China is still urbanization but preferably through the New-style Urbanization strategy that takes various possibilities into consideration.