Grassroots in Incremental Village Redevelopment: New Opportunities for Migrants in the Commons

Beijing’s urban villages have spontaneously experienced bottom-up, incremental, and self-governing redevelopment trajectories—a pattern different from state-led redevelopment programs. However, commons in urban village scenarios are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, actors often have incentives to maximize short-term dividends rather than to ensure sustainability. On the other hand, self-organization and self-governance can communicate and use reciprocity to overcome dilemmas. This chapter examines Banjieta village (半截塔村) in Dongxiaokou Town (东小口镇) in Changping District to better understand the nature of the urban village. The formation of the urban village was a consequence of speculation, inequality and informality in the development of land (as a commons), which is pragmatic and uncoordinated for short-term rent seeking. Homesteads have been left for informal land use, while escaping the destruction of the very resources on which local peasant landlords depend (see the “tragedy of the commons” in Hardin’s metaphor). Many urban villages in Beijing have become ant tribes, IT villages and art villages in the knowledge economy. This chapter examines the specific community-building process in two types of urban villages: (a) Heiqiao art village (黑桥村) in Cuigezhuang County (崔各庄乡), Chaoyang District; and (b) Shigezhuang IT village (史各庄村) in Huilongguan (回龙观), Changping District. Creative workers (as users of the common pool resource) can interact and develop effective rules that limit access and define rights and responsibilities. The community-building approach would be a third way for urban village redevelopment in Beijing, in addition to the conventional policy of Leviathan or privatization.