Deciphering the meaning and mechanism of migrants' and locals' neighborhood attachment in Chinese cities: Evidence from Guangzhou

《Deciphering the meaning and mechanism of migrants' and locals' neighborhood attachment in Chinese cities: Evidence from Guangzhou》

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关键字: Neighborhood attachment;Residential satisfaction;Social trust;Migrant;Moderation effect;Guangzhou

作者单位: School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, 135 West Xingang Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510275, China;School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, 229 Bayi Road, Wuhan, Hubei 430072, China;Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, 14 Upper Woburn Place, London, WC1H 0NN, United Kingdom;School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, 135 West Xingang Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510275, China;School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, 229 Bayi Road, Wuhan, Hubei 430072, China;Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, 14 Upper Woburn Place, London, WC1H 0NN, United Kingdom

摘要: The rising fluidity of the society in contemporary China has led to a restructuring of people's cognition and emotion toward their place of residence. Although a growing body of literature has attempted to identify place-based factors that influence residents' attachment to their neighborhoods in Chinese large cities, little effort has been devoted to unraveling the migrant-local distinction regarding the meaning and mechanism of neighborhood attachment. Using both questionnaire survey data and in-depth interview data collected in 23 neighborhoods of Guangzhou, China, this paper aims to explore the meaning and mechanism of neighborhood attachment through the combination of both structure equation modelling and qualitative analysis. The novelties of this study relate to the focus of migrant-local distinction and to the breakdown of place attachment into its social and functional dimensions. Results from structure equation modelling show that local residents have stronger attachment to their neighborhoods than migrants. Migrants' neighborhood attachment is more related to its social dimension, as measured by social contact and social trust, and locals' neighborhood attachment is more linked to its functional dimension, as measured by satisfaction with living environment of the neighborhood. This paper enhances our understanding of the nature of place attachment by taking into account the effects of institutional constraints and migration experiences.