The existing literature contextualizes China's suburban growth with market-oriented reform and emphasizes the role of local entrepreneurial government. However, studies on the demand-based factors are still lacking. Drawing upon a random survey undertaken in Songjiang, an outer suburban district of Shanghai, this paper investigates the demand-side driving forces of suburban growth in China: Ie, who the suburban residents are, what has driven them to move to the suburbs, and how their differences have shaped suburban space. With local natives, residents from central districts and migrants from other places as their major resident groups, Chinese suburbs illustrate a case where diverse population and types of development are juxtaposed. While migrants have flocked to the suburbs for employment opportunities, the residential moves of the other two groups, even though in some cases involuntary, are more likely to be associated with consumption considerations. Notably, alongside the emergence of single-family villas and gated communities, the pursuit of suburban living ideals has begun to play a role in China, though it is confined to only a few extremely rich families rather than the masses. In addition, three patterns of suburbs characterized by different types of households and developments—white-collar suburbs, migrant suburbs, and well-planned new towns—are identified.
BeauregardR, 2006When America Became Suburban (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. MN)
2.
BellW, 1958, “Social choice, life styles, and suburban residence”, in The Suburban Community Eds DobrinerWM, (G P Putnam's Sons, New York) pp 209–224
3.
BontjeMBurdackJ, 2005, “Edge cities European-style: Examples from Paris and the Randstad”Cities22317–330
4.
BrownE, 1992, “War on waste and other urban ideals for latin America”, in Rethinking the Latin American City Eds MoreseRMHardoyJE, (Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Washington, DC) pp 110–127
5.
CaldeiraTPR, 2000City of Walls: Crime, Segregation and Citizenship in Sao Paolo (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
6.
ClapsonMHutchisonR, (Eds), 2010, “Suburbanization in global society”Research in Urban Sociology10
7.
CoxKR, 1968, “Suburbia and voting behaviour in the London metropolitan area”Annals of the Association of American Geographers58111–127
8.
DavisD, (Eds), 2000The Consumer Revolution in Urban China (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
9.
DavisM, 2006Planet of Slums (Verso, New York)
10.
DengFFHuangY, 2004, “Uneven land reform and urban sprawl in China: The case of Beijing”Progress in Planning61211–236
11.
DunleavyP, 1979, “The urban basis of political dealignment: Social class, domestic property ownership, and state intervention in consumption processes”British Journal of Political Science9409–443
12.
EkersMHamelPKeilR, 2012, “Governing suburbia: Modalities and mechanisms of suburban governance”Regional studies46405–422
13.
FavaSF, 1956, “Suburbanism as a way of life”American Sociological Review2134–37
14.
FengJZhouY, 2005, “Suburbanisation and the changes of urban internal spatial structure in Hangzhou, China”Urban Geography26107–136
15.
FengJWangFZhouY, 2009, “The spatial restructuring of population in metropolitan Beijing: Towards polycentricity in the post-reform era”Urban Geography30779–802
16.
FishmanR, 1987, Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia (Basic Books, New York)
17.
FreyWH, 1979, “Central city white flight: Racial and nonracial causes”American Sociological Review44425–448
18.
GansHJ, 1967The Levittowners: Ways of Life and Politics in a New Suburban Community (Vintage, New York)
19.
HarrisR, 2010, “Meaningful types in a world of suburbs”Research in Urban Sociology1015––47
20.
HarrisRLarkhamP, 1999, “Suburban foundation, form and function”, in Changing Suburbs: Foundation, Form and Function Eds HarrisRLarkhamP, (Spon Press, London) pp 1–31
21.
HeSLiuYWebsterCWuF, 2009, “Property rights redistribution, entitlement failure and the impoverishment of landless farmers in China”Urban Studies461925–1949
22.
HirtS, 2012Iron Curtains: Gates, Suburbs and Privatization of Space in the Post-socialist City (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford)
23.
HuangYClarkWAV, 2002, “Housing tenure choice in transitional urban China: A multilevel analysis”Urban Studies397–32
24.
JacobsJ, 1961The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Vintage Books, New York)
25.
LiS-M, 2000, “Housing consumption in urban China: A comparative study of Beijing and Guangzhou”Environment and Planning A321115–1134
26.
LiS-MSongY-L, 2009, “Redevelopment, displacement, housing conditions, and residential satisfaction: A study of Shanghai”Environment and Planning A411090–1108
27.
LiS-MWuF, 2004, “Contextualizing residential mobility and housing choice: Evidence from urban China”Environment and Planning A361–6
28.
LinGCSYiF, 2011, “Urbanisation of capital or capitalisation on urban land? Land development and local public finance in urbanising China”Urban Geography3250–79
29.
McGeeTG, 1971The Urbanization Process in the Third World: Explorations in Search of a Theory (Bell and Hyman: London)
30.
McGeeTG, 1991, “The emergence of desakota regions in Asia: Expanding a hypothesis”, in The Extended Metropolis: Settlement Transition in Asia Eds GinsborgNKoppelBMcGeeT, (University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, HI) pp 3–25
31.
MarginW, 1967, “Latin American squatter settlements: A problem and a solution”Latin American Research Review2 (3) 65–98
32.
PhelpsNAWoodAM, 2011, “The new post-suburban politics?”Urban Studies482591–2610
33.
PhelpsNAWuF, 2011International Perspectives on Suburbanisation: A Post-Suburban World? (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hants)
34.
PhelpsNAWoodAMVallerDC, 2010, “A post-suburban world? An outline of a research agenda”Environment and Planning A42366–383
35.
PowCP, 2009Gated Communities in China: Class, Privilege and the Moral Politics of the Good Life. (Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon)
36.
RoitmanSPhelpsNA, 2011, “Do gates negate the city? Gated communities' contribution to the urbanization of suburbia in Pilar, Argentina”Urban Studies483487–3509
37.
ShenJWuF, 2012, “The development of master-planned communities in Chinese suburbs: A case study of Shanghai's Thames Town”Urban Geography33183–203
38.
SimonD, 2008, “Urban environments: Issues on the peri-urban fringe”Annual Review of Environment and Resources33167–185
39.
WalksRA, 2008, “Urban form, everyday life, and ideology: Support for privatization in three Toronto neighborhoods”Environment and Planning A40258–282
40.
WangFZhouY, 1999, “Modeling urban population densities in Beijing 1982–1990: Suburbanization and causes”Urban Studies36263–279
41.
WirthL, 1938, “Urbanism as a way of life”American Journal of Sociology441–24
42.
WuF, 2010, “Gated and packaged suburbia: Packaging and branding Chinese suburban residential development”Cities27385–396
43.
WuFPhelpsNA, 2011, “(Post) suburban development and state entrepreneurialism in Beijing's outer suburbs”Environment and Planning A43410–430
44.
WuW, 2008, “Migrant settlement and spatial distribution in Metropolitan Shanghai”The Professional Geographer60101–120
45.
YueWZLiuYFanP, 2010, “Polycentric urban development: The case of Hangzhou”Environment and Planning A42563–577
46.
ZhangJWuF, 2006, “China's changing economic governance: Administrative annexation and the reorganization of local governments in the Yangtze River Delta”Regional Studies403–21
47.
ZhangT, 2000, “Land market forces and government's role in sprawl”Cities17123–135
48.
ZhengSFuYLiuH, 2009, “Demand for urban quality of living in China: Evolution in compensating land-rent and wage-rate differentials”Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics38194–213
49.
ZhouYLoganJR, 2008, “Growth on the edge: The new Chinese metropolis”, in Urban China in Transition Eds LoganJR, (Blackwell Publishing, Oxford) pp 140–160
50.
ZhouYMaLJC, 2000, “Economic restructuring and suburbanization in China”Urban Geography21205–236
