文摘
I examine urban citizenship,modernity,and private homeownership through participant observation and interviews examining how various social groups in urban China (i.e. rural migrants,urban poor,urban middle-class) negotiate the construction of new and transforming class boundaries. Through an ethnographic study in five field sites--two gated communities,two public housing compounds,and one old city neighborhood--I explore the everyday experience of residents in the midst of urban housing redevelopment. I link the economic and cultural domains of class construction to further understand the dynamic interplay between broader political-economic context and individual lived experience. I illustrate that uneven housing development constitutes changing spatial dimensions of class in Nanjing,China. This study illuminates the theoretical and practical implications of uneven development.