Governance of Urban Villages, Informal Employment, and Industrial Upgrading: An Analysis Based on the Perspective of Spatial Allocation of Factors

• Zhengkun Ji

  Author

From the theoretical perspective of factor space configuration, this study systematically examines the intrinsic relationships and interaction mechanisms among urban villages, informal employment, and urban industrial structure upgrading. The core argument holds that urban villages, leveraging low living and operational costs, which attract a large number of low-skilled labor and informal economic activities within urban village areas, and creating a factor concentration space and cost adjustment system for low-end manufacturing that adapts to traditional urban service industries and low-end manufacturing. Large-scale state-led gentrification-led urban redevelopment restructures regional labor supply systems and raises local living costs, thereby inducing the cross-regional migration of low-skilled laborers. This urban renewal process further accelerates the high-end and service-oriented transformation of urban industrial structures. On the one hand, urban village renewal generates a transformation impetus effect, which improves the productivity of urban production factors and boosts the cultivation of knowledge-intensive industries. On the other hand, it creates a factor crowding-out effect: the operating costs of urban basic service sectors rise sharply, industrial supply chains are broken, and the sustainable progress of industrial upgrading is restrained. Through comprehensive analysis of existing literature, this study elucidates the underlying spatial political economy logic behind this evolutionary process, providing theoretical insights for developing inclusive urban renewal mechanisms and ensuring coordinated implementation of urban renewal policies with industrial development strategies.

• JAESD000021.pdf