This is a book on urban grassroots movements. It presents the results of years of hard work by Shi Yunqing, who has diligently been following various groups of people involved in these movements, carefully collecting data and materials on them, and subjecting that rich body of information to close examination and rigorous analysis.
Since the 1990s, when many local governments in China adopted the “Operating Cities” strategy, the scale of urbanization has greatly increased, and the pace accelerated. There have been wave after wave of urban movements of varying scales set off by government-led land development initiatives, and these movements continue to this day. Academic interests in these movements, especially among sociologists, also began around that time, and so far researchers have produced a notable corpus of output. Yet, as we look back, two things in particular seem to warrant deeper reflection. First, the vast majority of the studies have focused on what apartment owners in newly-built residential buildings in commercial areas do to defend their legal rights, while urban movements of other forms have received relatively little attention. Secondly, researchers have mostly been concerned with the strategies adopted by the people involved in and the internal logic of these movements, and largely overlooked the legacies of these movements for the society as a whole.
In my view, this work by Shi Yunqing has gone some way towards remedying these two shortcomings in the existing literature. She has focused much of her attention on the ordinary people who inhabit the older parts of cities. Unlike residential property owners in newly developed commercial districts, a group with whom we are already quite familiar, most of these people either occupy the lower rungs of the social ladder or belong to families whose overall conditions have been on the decline over the last few decades. Most residential property owners in newly developed commercial districts are, by contrast, members of the emerging middle class, people who, having reaped handsome benefits from reform and opening-up, enjoy steady rise in their personal fortunes. Many of the former inhabitants of the older parts of cities had lived in bungalows that were either demolished or requisitioned by force, and often repurposed for commercial use. Many of these inhabitants themselves were, as a result, left with no other choice but to move away from the city center. What defining features does such a group have, and how do the unique experiences and wisdom it had gained under the existing system shape their acts of resistance and the logic of such social movement? These issues merit careful study, and by creating a distinct category for this kind of social movement, Shi has contributed important insights to these issues.
Protecting one’s ownership of and usufruct in a piece of property against infringement is the hallmark of this type of urban movement. Indeed, this is what the activism by inhabitants of the older parts of cities and by property owners in newly built residential buildings in commercial districts have in common. However, the former are also engaged in something very particular, namely, “the politics of recognition”, i.e. demanding, through class-action law suits involving “the Grand Litigation” and other legal actions, official recognition by the authorities of their legal ownership of and right to use their properties, and also the necessary protection or compensation such recognition entails. Through such movements, these individuals have tried persistently to arrive at a clear understanding of the proper relationship between the state and themselves, and of the precise scope of their own rights. The process helped to make real citizens out of the individuals involved. Insofar as these social consequences of such urban movements have been included into the social framework, they will be long-lasting as well. What these movements also demonstrate is that, while many people might have imagined property rights to be something whose establishment and protection from infringement are once and for all guaranteed with but a piece of legal document, in reality, under the system currently in place, real estate property rights, or indeed property rights in anything else, or even other kinds of rights of citizens are never a given one can just take for granted. Instead, it is up to the individuals concerned to agitate in order to have their rights recognized, honored and protected. Rights, in essence, demarcate a domain of social actions.
Shi Yunqing has, I believe, left a mark on our understanding about both of these issues. While there may be room for debate for some of her conclusions, the value of her work is without dispute. Great achievements await those who dare to find and to stay on their own path forward.