(c) Anne-Christine Tremon
Indigenous people, migrants and unequal access to urban citizenship in an urbanized village in Shenzhen, China
As part of the seminar Mobilities, Circulations and Urbanities in Globalized Cities 2021-2022, Anne-Christine Trémon (University of Lausanne) will present her work on Friday, February 18, on the theme: “What rights to the city? Indigenous people, migrants and unequal access to urban citizenship in an urbanized village in Shenzhen (China)”.
Friday 12:30-14:30
By videoconference
Get the translation link : camille.schmoll ( at ) ehess.fr
In China, the meteoric growth of the urban population is due both to the re-categorization of former rural villages into urban districts and to labour migration from the countryside to the cities. The large number of urban villages (chengzhongcun), stigmatized as problematic enclaves, are the product of this double phenomenon. They are characterized by the co-presence of indigenous inhabitants, former peasants who have become city dwellers, and migrants, inhabitants who lack urban citizenship.
This paper, which is based on research conducted in an urbanized village in the southern megacity of Shenzhen, proposes to reflect on the notion of “right to the city”. Currently, point systems are becoming widespread in all major Chinese cities. They aim to break with the logic that, until recently, granted access to urban public goods and services to those who had urban citizenship.
I will show how the principle of territorialized rights persists in the practices and representations of both natives and migrants. I will also explore how, among migrants, class and gender differences account for very contrasting apprehensions of the right to the city: one closer to the moral and political formulation given by Henri Lefevbre, the other adhering to the literal interpretation and legal implementation given by the Chinese authorities.
The seminar Mobilités, circulations et urbanités dans les villes mondialisées (Mobilities, circulations and urbanities in globalized cities) is organized by Camille Schmoll, director of studies at EHESS and member of Géographie-cités, Hélène Thiollet and Aurélie Varrel, research fellows at CNRS, with the collaboration of Delphine Pages El Karoui (CERMOM/INaLCO) and Catherine Lejeune (LARCA/University of Paris).
This seminar, at the crossroads of urban studies, migration studies and mobility studies, participates in the reworking of the category of world cities based on international mobility and the category of urbanity. In contrast to approaches that radically oppose cities of the North and the South, the aim is to seek comparative reading grids of the urban phenomenon, at the crossroads of the different forms and scales of mobility, while addressing local and regional singularities. We will question the orders of presence and legitimacy in these cities, which are crossed by both mobility and migration, but also by sometimes strong sedentary logics and injunctions. This monthly seminar will alternate presentations of recent empirical work in the field of urban studies and migration studies, with sessions of epistemological reflection based on readings, in a resolutely multidisciplinary and trans-area approach. The seminar alternates between general reflection sessions and comparative case studies on specific themes.
2021-2022 program of the seminar Mobilities, Circulations and Urbanities in Globalized Cities
