Neighborhoods Of Land-Lost Farmers In The Process Of Urbanization

The situation of land-lost farmers in China has become a controversial social problem in periodof social transformation. Hence, land-lost farmer group has been studied widely in the process ofurbanization. However, the existing researches about land-lost farmers focused on social security,social adaption, property of farmland and land requisition system. And few studies have beenextended in the field of new neighborhoods of land-lost farmers. So far, there have two viewpoints inacademia. One is called ‘the theory of community disappearance’, which claims that neighborhoodsare disintegrating. The other one is called ‘the theory of community development’, which holds thatneighborhoods remains the same. Both of them are too absolute. And what is more, their researchesare mostly based on urban communities, even foreign communities. So neither of them can explainwhat exactly the neighborhoods of lost-land farmers groups are like. Thus an intensive research at themicro-level should be a better way to study the issue of land-lost farmer groups.This research chose the land-lost farmers settled in settlement community in Chunchao Garden inWuxi New District as object. The neighborhoods of lost-land in the process if urbanization isoperationalized into four dimensions-that is relationships on daily life, work, rite and festival. Theresearch methods include participant observation, unstructured interview, analytic comparison. Thisresearch is intended to study the change of lost-land farmers’ neighborhoods in period of socialtransformation. It is found that the land-lost farmers establish friendly relationship with neighborsactively and initiatively in order to avoid loneness although neighborhood communication is limiteddue to the changes of the population structure and the life spatial layout and significant generation gap.Therefore the neighboring relation in life is not weakened. And the neighborhood fades andneighborhood communication decreases greatly in the ceremony and festivals with higherrationalization improving and ceremony simplified and traditional custom in festival fading away.While the neighborhood in work or job is not weakened but strengthened. The land-lost farmersbecame more united and closer in the face of the strange surroundings and living pressure. Meanwhile,the modernized elements, such as respect for other’s privacy and expansion of communication range,are increasing. Under the dual influences of traditional and modern factors, the land-lost farmers arecontradictorily striding towards modern times. The neighborhood turns to “limited interaction” from“overall interaction”. The neighborhood presents situation of “partially strengthened and whollyweakened”.