Negotiating the exclusive right to public schools in China’s education-featured gated communities under multiscalar and multidirectional urban entrepreneurialism

Shenjing He and Rong Cai
Additional contact information
Shenjing He: The University of Hong Kong, China
Rong Cai: Sun Yat-sen University, China

Urban Studies, 2024, vol. 61, issue 14, 2756-2777

Abstract: How urban entrepreneurialism is enacted at the neighbourhood level while connecting with broader urban processes remains insufficiently explored. This study introduces a novel conceptual framework of multiscalar and multidirectional urban entrepreneurialism to examine the governance of gated communities that involves dynamic interactions between the entrepreneurial local state, developers, gated communities and individual homeowners/investor-citizens. In Chinese cities, the pursuit of quality living and good schools has given rise to ‘education-featured gated communities’ that package privileged access to K–12 schools with tailor-made residential services. By turning education from a public good into a club good that can be capitalised in the housing price and leveraged in urban (re)development, education-featured gated communities are highly sought after by homebuyers, developers, and local states, becoming an important and integral component of urban entrepreneurialism. When the rising demands of gated community homeowners for school places are not met, activism for quality education within gated communities becomes ubiquitous. Drawing on multiple case studies and multi-source empirical data including national and local policies/documents, in-depth interviews, non-participant observation and site visits, this research examines how homeowners negotiate their exclusive right to public schools through intensive interactions with local authorities. We argue that the semi-private governance of gated communities forms the institutional basis for the ‘shareholding enterprise’ centring on property values. By unpacking the multidirectional processes of entrepreneurial governance that built upon an effective feedback loop involving multiscalar entrepreneurial endeavours based on shareholder value, this study offers a nuanced and enriched understanding of contemporary urban entrepreneurialism.

Keywords: edu-featured gated community; multidirectionality; multiscalarity; public schools; semi-private governance; urban entrepreneurialism; ä»¥æ•™è‚²ä¸ºç‰¹è‰²çš„å° é—­ç¤¾åŒº; å¤šå ‘åº¦; å¤šæ ‡é‡; å…¬ç«‹å­¦æ ¡; å Šç§ äººæ²»ç †; åŸŽå¸‚ä¼ ä¸šä¸»ä¹‰ (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00420980231204714 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:61:y:2024:i:14:p:2756-2777

DOI: 10.1177/00420980231204714

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().