During the first two year-phase the project achieved a deepened understanding of the complex and interdependent processes of massive megaurbanization and tremendous (partly informal) rural-urban migration into the PRD, the consequential emergence of migrant settlements – the urban villages – and the collapsed-health-care system against the background of China’s social and economic transition and global change. In the second phase the focus on the topic of migration and megaurban health has been sustained, but extended in four respects: (1) other migrant localities besides urban villages and a higher variety of internal migrant groups have been included, (2) the analysis of migrant’s access to health care has been broadened to their access to urban social services and infrastructure, (3) international migrants in China from developing and transitional countries have been integrated, as many parallels were found concerning their legal status and consequential access to assets; (4) increasing attention has been paid to the role of NGO’s and self-help groups. Overall aim is the development of a theoretical and comparative framework on the interlinkages of global change, national transition, migration, the changing urban social sphere and the emergence of informal structures. Extended to our broader frame, we keep up our initial research questions: How are different groups of migrants affected by the devastated social service system and infrastructure, how do different stakeholders react, how are different levels of administration reacting to this complex interplay of local, national and supranational agents, and how does this condition China’s social, economical and political stability?

Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Bettina Gransow (Berlin) und  Prof. Dr. Frauke Kraas (Universität Köln) Projektpartner: Prof. Xue Desheng, Prof. Zhou Daming, Sun Yat-sen Universität Kanton Projektteam Berlin: Yuan Yuan, Christian Schnack, Frido Wenten, Annegret König Kontakt: bgransow [at] zedat.fu-berlin.de

Webseite www.megacities-megachallenge.org