When Formalization Fails

Reviews / Votes

'Informality seems a way of life in China's urban resettlement as the authors have unveiled it with their extensive fieldwork. Informal built environments are often associated with informal employment, even though governments strive to provide a formal framework. The book should be an interesting read as findings are insightful.' Professor Jieming Zhu, FAcSS, Tongji University, China 'When Formalization Fails makes a timely contribution to institutional economics and urban development by explaining why policy form diverges from function in state-led resettlement. Centering the Credibility Thesis, the book argues that informality is not a failure but a practical mechanism that sustains credible expectations when formal arrangements fall short. Drawing on comparative case studies from China, the authors show how informality acts as an adaptive response to the limits of top-down urbanization. By introducing the Formal-Actual-Targeted (FAT) framework and the Credibility Scales and Intervention (CSI) checklist, the work bridges conceptual rigor with an actionable diagnostic toolkit. This book will be of strong interest to scholars and students of institutional economics, development studies, and urban governance, as well as policymakers grappling with the challenges of displacement, urbanization, and inclusive development in a world of rapid social, cultural, and economic transformations.' Professor Tony Fang, Stephen Jarislowsky Chair in Cultural and Economic Transformation, Memorial University of Newfoundland; Adjunct Professor in Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management, University of Toronto; Adjunct Professor in Sociology, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada; Research Fellow, IZA 'Displacement and resettlement are critical issues for global development studies. From the Three Gorges Dam resettlement to recent poverty alleviation migration, China's endeavors represent not only national development strategies but also significant contributions to human development. This book makes a timely and important contribution. It critically examines the interplay between national resettlement policies and local processes of adaptation and implementation. The findings invite global audiences to reflect on China's practices and their implications for other developing countries. It is a must-read for international scholars and practitioners in the field of resettlement studies.' Professor Guoqing Shi, Founding Director of NRCR, Hohai University, Nanjing, China 'When Formalization Fails offers a timely and compelling intervention into the long-standing puzzle of why state-led resettlement--so often celebrated as a pathway to social order and development --routinely produces new terrains of informality. Beyond a view of deficit, the authors show, through rich comparative evidence across China's coast and hinterland, how post-resettlement informality becomes a functional repertoire for everyday governance and livelihood-making. Importantly, the book treats informality not as a residual and problematic practice to be eliminated, but as a rich assembly of social functions that can attain and sustain a particular level of institutional credibility--an insight that helps explain why it persists and adapts to changing imperatives, even under renewed formalization efforts. The Credibility Thesis, operationalized via the FAT framework and CSI checklist, equips scholars and practitioners to plan with, rather than against, these informal realities.' Dr. Junxi Qian, Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR 'In this excellently written and brilliantly researched book, Zhu Qian and Chen Yang have given us a vivid documentation of the various struggles residents experience after being resettled by the state as well as the many possibilities for residents to take agency in rebuilding their post-resettlement livelihoods. Through in-depth research of three representative relocation settlements in China, the book makes an important contribution towards the scholarship on informality and challenges us to rethink the blurry boundary between formality and informality. When Formalization Fails is a must read for anyone interested in what happens to residents after their resettlement.' Dr. Zheng Wang, Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Cities, Department of Geography, King's College of London, United Kingdom