Livelihood Strategies in China: Lessons Learned From Taiyuan

Studies of urban China often deploy top-down analyses and focus on tier-1 cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. This thesis contributes to a diversifying literature by using a bottom-up analysis to compare the livelihood strategies of peri-urban residents in Taiyuan, a tier-2 city, to those in tier-1 and other lower-tiered cities. The empirical findings elucidate a similar spectrum of livelihood strategies, but unlike tier-1 and some lower-tiered cities, there was an absence of renting to migrant workers in peri-urban Taiyuan. Additionally, social infrastructure, social reproduction, and socio-spatial practices, often overlooked in studies of Chinese livelihoods, are central to understanding livelihood strategies people in peri-urban Taiyuan. Lastly, this thesis suggests that similar comparative studies can produce sharper insights into how processes of urbanization are not bound to specific territories: Chinese and global urban studies are connected through analogous urbanization processes, while also having unique circumstances.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Geography

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Oregon

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Bachrach, David

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Buck, Daniel

• China
• Livelihood Strategies
• Political Economy
• Shanxi
• Taiyuan
• Urban Studies

Statement dc:rights

• All Rights Reserved.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1794/25906

OAI record oai:identifier

https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Ascholarsbank.uoregon.edu%3A1794%2F25906