Supporting data for "Village Collectives in Peri-Urban China: Governance of Urbanising Communities in Lugouqiao Township, Beijing"

The development of political, economic, and social spaces in China’s peri-urban areas appears to be lagging behind their physical and geographical transformation under a rapid pace of urbanisation. Some traditional rural community structures and institutions seem to remain intact, functional, and influential in many Chinese cities. This phenomenon stands in contrast to the literature, which suggests that the rural community and organisations will dissolve and a new governance relationship between the state, the market, and the community will emerge under urbanisation and especially neoliberalism. Theoretical discourses about neoliberalism in the western cities appear inadequate to explain the changes in China. Previous empirical studies on peri-urban China focused mainly on the southern coastal areas, which tend to have a solid clan-based rural society. They may not explain the existence and functions of village collectives in northern Chinese cities where village clans are generally weaker and the local governments are more assertive.

If urbanisation in Beijing is mainly driven by a strong authoritarian state, why does it still allow village collectives to remain functional and strong? This research examines the grassroots governance of villages in Lugouqiao Township, Beijing, and investigates its transformation under a powerful state within the historical and institutional local context. Through archival studies, field research and in-depth interviews, this study explores the role, position, and functions of village collectives in community governance from a micro-historical perspective. By examining the changing role of village collectives and its diverse relationship with the local state, the market, and the community in the transitional processes of shareholding cooperative reforms, urbanising community governance and spatial development, this study argues that the retention of village collectives relates to the flexible tactics deliberately designed by the state, through which state building could be maintained at the village level while, at the same time, a certain degree of local neoliberal practices could be achieved at the community level. This study will shed light on the dynamism of urbanisation in peri-urban China and contribute to the empirical understanding of and theoretical development about China’s unique urbanisation in the aspect of community governance.