| This dissertation examines the dynamics of housing attainment in urban China through a detailed investigation into the housing production and allocation process and outcomes in Wuhan since the onset of economic reform in 1978. This study examines: 1) housing attainment and inequality measured by crowding, amenities, tenure status, and housing cost; 2) the spatial patterns and extent of residential differentiation; and 3) the institutional underpinnings of housing attainment in Wuhan.;Findings based on statistical analyses suggest that both the market mechanisms and institutional factors worked together to affect housing inequality in Wuhan City in 2000. The hukou system remains the most salient institutional factor, differentiating between people with agricultural/non-agricultural and local/non-local hukou in the housing system. People with higher socioeconomic and political are less constrained by the institutional factors by linking economic and political advantages in the housing system.;Using affordable housing and "villages in the city"---two major dwelling arrangements for the urban poor---as examples, this dissertation illustrates how housing attainment is affected by the institutions and their changes, which are determined by the interests and positions of various actors (the central and local governments, developers, and residents). The institutional framework employed in this dissertation adds an explanatory power to existing studies on China's urban housing, which largely focus on the effects of rational household choices and the coalition between local governments and the private sectors.;Along with the transformation of Chinese society, social stratification started to present itself in the form spatial differentiation. Using spatial measures such as the location quotient and the entropy index, this dissertation shows a mixed and fragmented spatial pattern of residential differentiation in Wuhan City; it bears the imprint from pre-reform institutions and new space carved out by their changes. Even though clusters of residential differentiation are observed between the core City and the Suburb, and based on tenure status, the hukou system, and occupation status, large scale geographical residential segregation has not formed yet. Detailed spatial analyses add an important geographical dimension to current housing studies in China. |
