Home-making Strategies of Homeless People in Urban China

Sydney China Seminars

While Chinese people are technically guaranteed a place to live through the hukou system, homelessness is still an issue in China. Our paper aims to explore the home-making strategies of homeless people in the context of China’s homelessness policy transition from repatriation to assistance in the post-socialist era, using in-depth interviews with homeless people and others interacting with them in Shanghai’s high-prestige downtown area. Drawing on structuration theory, we find that homeless people work to create a sense of home through: 1) avoiding the government service centres where freedom, privacy and social contact are restricted; 2) adapting their routines to rigid place management in the daytime and benefitting from strict security at night; and 3) tactically utilising surrounding spaces and facilities to carry out daily activities and develop a sense of home and control. Government assistance through the service centres is inadequate and may even be diametrically opposed to home-making, highlighting room for improvement in government homelessness policies.

About the speaker

Jin Zhu, Assistant Professor at Department of Real Estate and Construction and Department of Urban Planning and Design, The University of Hong Kong. Previously, he worked as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Public Policy, City University of Hong Kong. He completed his PhD at City Futures Research Centre, University of New South Wales (UNSW) and received his bachelors and masters degree in planning from Zhejiang and Tongji Universities, China. His research interests span housing studies, urbanisation and migration, rural studies, and urban planning and governance.

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