ABSTRACT
This paper provides an account of urbanisation, spatial segregation and class encounters in Wuhan in conjunction with policies led by central and local governments. Wuhan is a leading second-tier city with significant economic growth in China’s Reform Era. Yet, social inequality is both highlighted and demarcated by urbanisation in Wuhan. This chapter claims that the class encounters and the socio-spatial restructuring in urban Wuhan produces class positions that crosscut middle and lower classes. Various sources of social respectability such as hometown origin and moral virtues at times play a more important role in construction of one’s class position than socio-economic status.
The first part of the paper outlines urbanisation and spatial segregation in the reform-era China. The next part discusses the Chinese state’s response to the increasing socio-spatial polarisation. Social policies, such as the revisions on the household registration system (hukou), poverty alleviation measures such as the poverty pension (dibao) as well as economic policies such as public–private partnerships (PPP) contribute to the transformation of class relations in urban China. Building upon the first two parts, the last part will focus on the empirical study of spatial segregation and class encounters in Wuhan closing the whole chapter.
