Pro-Growth Coalitions and Homeowner Activism – a Comparative Study in Shanghai and Taipei

Middle-class homeowners, whom one would expect to be the gainers of China’s urbanization, have formed one of the discontented groups as other social groups such as relocated households or migrant workers. They adopted a variety of collective actions – petition, litigation, sit-in demonstration – to uphold their private property rights. Existing literature tends to understand homeowners’ discontent as a result of the immature housing market, the deceitful real estate developers and their management agencies, and the non-independent legal system. While focusing on immediate causes, existing studies neglect more important structural factors that contribute to homeowner activism. By adopting a comparative study – based on documents and interviews – in Shanghai and Taipei, the author argues that different levels of state intervention in housing-related disputes lead to different dynamics of homeowner activism. In Shanghai, the local states are de facto land-owners and play a dominant role in planning, relocating, and leasing the land to the developers. They build close relationships with the developers. When housing disputes emerge, the local states are motivated to intervene and ally with the developers considering the fact that they have substantial interests involved. This explains why more often than not homeowner activism in Shanghai directly targets the government and proceeds in a non-institutional manner. But in Taipei, the local states are mere regulators in land development processes. Individual land-owners initiate the redevelopment projects and negotiate with the developers. Housing disputes in Taipei are usually dealt with through negotiation or courts. This study offers a new perspective to understand increasing homeowner activism in Chinese cities. It also has profound implications for state-society interactions and urban governance in contemporary China.