| The expansion and construction of cities is closely linked to industrial development.In the 1950s and 1960s,a large number of national industrial construction projects under the First Five-Year Plan and the "Third Line Construction" directly led to the rise and development of many old and new industrial towns from the top down.At that time,the state built and relocated a number of large state-owned enterprises in the western region to develop local mineral resources,heavy industry and related industries,and the enterprises took on the construction and management of factories and towns,running societies and building cities.The factory and mine migrants who moved in from other areas formed the bulk of the enterprise workers and early urban residents.They were both participants in the construction and transformation of the city,and the life histories of several generations of migrants are interwoven with the history of urban construction.This study focuses on the history of factory and mine migrants and the social space of the mining city,and adopts an anthropological perspective to conduct fieldwork in Baiyin,a mining city in northwest China.A range of empirical and documentary material was collected through unstructured or semi-structured interviews,participant observation and access to archives.Using the paradigm of spatial production,the study explores the characteristics and connections between civic life,development history and spatial production in an industrial factory and mining city,and analyses the reasons for the formation of this urban spatial pattern and the daily life of citizens.This study presents and analyses the historical process of urban socio-spatial production through three dimensions:’factory and mine construction’,’urban construction’and ’industrial migration and local society’,and draws the following conclusions Firstly,modern mine exploration analysed and marked the natural space that had not yet been incorporated into the social sphere,providing a frame of reference for the subsequent production of industrial sites such as mining,smelting and even urban space,opening up new social spaces.Secondly,the ’blasting’ of mines was essentially a spatial practice that reshaped the natural landscape on a large scale,opening up a new space for industrial production in the form of modern mines.In addition,the mining industry was the centrepiece of a vast non-ferrous metals industry that included beneficiation.smelting and processing,as well as ancillary production sectors that required the large-scale construction of corresponding industrial sites and further diversified industrial production spaces.Thirdly,there is a concomitant relationship between the city as a whole and local industry,with the layout of large enterprises creating the production of urban space.The newly created industrial cities have ’no history’ and the administrative areas are completely redrawn,stitching together the socio-spatial fragments of different areas.Fourthly,the spatial pattern of urban planning is constantly being adjusted as industries rise and fall and transform.Many social services and institutions were built during the "enterprise run society" period,refining and refining the internal structure of urban space.These spatial representations and practices formed an important part of the production of material,social and spiritual space in the city.Fifthly,the newly industrialised city of Baiyin was almost entirely populated by such infused state-owned enterprises,and immigrants from all over the country lived in the isolated islands constructed by the enterprises,and in the early days were alienated from the local community.Later on,with institutional reforms and urban transformation,these divisions gradually dissolved and the industrial migrants were no longer alienated from the local community.The social space of the city integrates different socio-cultural and spatial fragments,but there are still some clear fractures between the migrant community and the local society. |
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