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ABSTRACT
This paper aims to broaden the analysis of the social-ecological impact of land grab. It does so by examining a hidden form of dispossession – expulsion by pollution within the context of industrial transfer inside China. Expulsion by pollution is different from the land dispossession described in most land grab studies as it involves expelling people from their land by reducing its use value through pollution, rather than taking the land away. Based on a case study in China, this paper explores the dynamics, mechanisms and impacts of expulsion by pollution. It finds that the alliance of developmentalist government and private capital has not only provided political space for pollution to occur but also limited the space for local villagers to resist its environmental impacts. The poor bear the heaviest brunt of the negative impact of pollution and in the most vulnerable situations.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 For the privacy of interviewees, the authors replace the real names of the village, township, county and province where the fieldwork was conducted with G Village, B Township, Y County and J Province.
2 The ‘left-behind’ people refers to the family members (mainly children, women and the elderly) of migrant workers who remain in their rural communities to perform farm labour and look after their homes and remaining family members that is one of the consequences of the massive internal rural-urban migration that has occurred in China since 1980s (Ye, Citation2011; Ye et al., Citation2013).
3 At the time of writing 1 Yuan = 0.14 US dollars or 0.13 Euro.
4 Forestland here does not refer to natural forest but land used for tree cultivation. Both the forestland and farmland are collectively owned but the forestland was not contracted to rural households under the Household Responsibility System in the 1980s. Until the Forestland Reform in 2008, the user rights of collectively forestland were formally distributed and verified (Xu, Citation2018).
5 The cost of renting land in the industrial parks is 64,000 yuan per mu but investors can get a subsidy of up to 44,000 yuan per mu for fixed asset investment. 1 ha is 15 mu. At the time of writing 1 Yuan = 0.14 US dollars or 0.13 Euro.
6 Before the industrial park, forestland in G Village were planted with trees mainly for ecological ends rather than for the market. Villagers did not economically benefit much from collectively-owned forestland. The compensation standard of appropriating forestland was also much lower than that of farmland, so local government preferred to appropriate forestland from surrounding villages. The land transfer did reduce the space and possibility for villagers to diversify their livelihoods by using forestland.
7 Interview with ZH, a former village head of G Village, August 1, 2016, Y County.
8 Interview with H, an official of B township government, August 1, 2016, Y County.
9 Interview with H, an official of B township government, August 1, 2016, Y County.
10 Interview with H, an official of B township government, August 1, 2016, Y County.
11 Based on the assumption of 300 working days per year.
12 Interview with GH, a villager in G Village, July 28, 2016, Y County.
13 Interview with DM, a villager in G Village, July 31, 2016, Y County.
14 In the test report offered by a public hospital in Y County, blood lead level less than 100 μg/L remains in normal range. According to World Health Organization [WHO] (Citation2018), ‘even blood lead concentrations as low as 5 μg/dL, once thought to be a “safe level”, may be associated with decreased intelligence in children, behavioral difficulties and learning problems’.
15 Interview with GH, a villager in G Village, August 1, 2016, Y County. The test result was not available during the interview.
16 Interview with XK, a villager in G Village, July 29, 2016, Y County.
17 Interview with ZR, a villager in G Village, July 30, 2016, Y County.
18 Interview with ZR, a villager in G Village, July 30, 2016, Y County.
19 Y city refers to the place where the Y County government is located.
20 Interview with YH, a villager in G Village, July 29, 2016, Y County.
22 Interview with SY, a villager in G Village, July 30, 2016, Y County.
23 Interview with LX, a villager in G Village, July 29, 2016, Y County.
24 Interview with ZH, a former village head of G Village, July 31, 2016, Y County.
25 Interview with GH, a villager in G Village, July 28, 2016, Y County.
26 Interview with XK, a villager in G Village, July 29, 2016, Y County.
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Notes on contributors
Hua Li
Hua Li is an associate professor in College of Humanities and Law at Taiyuan University of Technology which is located in Shanxi Province of China. She has got her doctoral degree from College of Humanities and Development at China Agricultural University. Her research interest includes water politics, environmental justice, rural development and agrarian change.
Lu Pan
Lu Pan is an associate professor in College of Humanities and Development at China Agricultural University. Her research interest includes left-behind population, rural development and agrarian change.