Study on Poverty Risk and Risk Avoidance of People Affected by Housing Relocation due to Urban Construction Projects in China Western Cities

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

With accelerating urbanization in western provinces and cities of China, the number of urban construction projects, such as the old urban area reconstruction project, the development zone construction project, and the infrastructure construction project are on the rise. The project scale has been expanding and the amount of housing relocation involved in construction projects is growing year by year. As a result, more and more people are affected in this process. These people not only include the relocated people as specified by the Regulation on the Dismantlement of Urban Houses, namely, the owner of relocated houses, but also the actual users of the relocated housed who may be affected temporarily or permanently and the people influenced by relocation of houses for business purposes. To properly resettle the affected people in urban relocation projects, maintaining their right for survival and development, providing sustainable development opportunities for them, and eliminating or lowering their poverty risks is helpful for reducing social contradictions and conflicts and avoiding possible social risks. Large-scale construction projects have emerged in western provinces and cities with the implementation of the strategy of Development of Western Regions. Against this background, social risks caused by social contradictions due to relocation activities have occurred from time to time. Low-quality relocation and resettlement have become unstable factors and have stood in the way of harmonious development. Poverty risk of the affected people, as the fundamental and one of the most obvious social risks, relates to their right and interest for survival and development. To study the poverty risk and risk avoidance of people affected by housing relocation due to urban construction projects is helpful for not only maintaining social stability, but also achieving the“People Oriented” goal of urban construction projects. From the perspective of causal relation among the affecting factors for poverty risk of people affected by housing relocation due to
urban construction projects, this paper adopts the method of a cause-and-effect tree diagram analysis to study the influence and combined action of four major affecting factors, namely, limitation of resettlement compensation policy objective, production difficulty of affected people, living difficulty of affected people and social marginalization of affected people, as well as the generation of poverty risk. It is found in the study that the limitation of resettlement compensation policy (with housing resettlement as the main objective) objective is the leading factor causing poverty risk. Social policy guidelines shall clearly specify that the government resettlement authorities shall assume main responsibilities in risk avoidance and play a leading role in solving production and living difficulties of affected people and improving the living environment of the vulnerable resettled groups.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Core Concept and Basic Hypotheses
• Analytical Framework and Empirical Research
• Major Findings and Social Policy
• Bibliography