Agency and social construction of space under top-down planning: Resettled rural residents in China

Resettled rural communities are a product of China’s rapid urbanisation and associated topdown planning. For local governments, relocating farmers from natural villages into new, concentrated residential neighbourhoods serves the dual purpose of implementing national directives on farmland conservation and integrated urban–rural planning. For resettled residents, however, the transition process is fraught with livelihood, social and cultural contest. This paper explores how such residents in a Chinese city, Zhenjiang, exercise agency to reconstruct community and public space in their new neighbourhood. Keeping alive patterns and practice of thoughts acquired during their rural lives, habitus, resettled residents have deployed their new spatial situation in creative ways. Pre-existing social fabric and mutual benefit-sharing provide the foundation for spatial adaptation and transformation, allowing residents to achieve a sense of normalcy or even to recreate village life. Theoretically, our analysis highlights the importance of situating spatial agency within the context of shifting regime of property rights and its effect on the maintenance of habitus. 中国的飞速城市化和相关的自上而下式规划带来了农村人口的重新安置。对于地方政府而言， 将农民从自然村安置到新的集中居住区服务于双重目的：实施关于基本农田保护的全国政策， 实施城乡统筹规划。但是，对于被安置的居民而言，这一转变过程充满了生计、社会和文化的 竞争冲突。本文研宄了浙江一座城市的居民如何发挥能动性，在新的街区中重建共同体和公共 空间。重新安置的居民保留了农村生活中沿袭的思维方式和习惯，即习授，以具有创造性的方 式部署了新的空间格局。原有的社会肌理和互惠共享为空间调整和转型提供了基础，使得居民 们能获得一种常态感，甚至重新创造村落生活。从理论角度，我们的分析强调了将空间能动性 置于变迁中的产权机制语境中的重要性以及这一点对于保持习授的影响。