Privatization,Marketization,and Deprivation: Interpreting the Homeownership Paradox in Postreform Urban China

The paper examines the nature of the housing predicaments faced by China's urban poor since the advent of pro-ownership housing marketization in the 1990s. It is argued that housing deprivation in today's urban China is a complex problem which is difficult to disentangle based solely on the material outcomes of housing distribution and housing inequalities. Therefore, an integrative framework is proposed to examine the issue from the perspective of structure–agency interaction. Statistical methods are employed to identify the concrete market and nonmarket factors which constrain the housing decisions of Nanjing's poor families, based on census and household-survey data. Qualitative interviews are then utilized to help reconstruct and interpret different storylines of homeownership transition under the identified constraints. Findings suggest that the ownership-based housing model has been promoted among the poor in exploitative ways, which has resulted in profound deprivation—for both poor owners and nonowners. Alternative, nonownership housing options are urgently needed to address the problem.