9 - Associations beyond Neighborhoods and Property

Summary

Homeowners in China do go beyond their neighborhoods and demand the right to participate in broader urban governance and the right of homeowners’ associations (“HoAs”) to associate with other HoAs citywide and even nationwide. Moreover, some homeowner activists even demand democratization in other arenas that are not directly related to property rights. I divide homeowners’ associational activities along two dimensions: physical boundaries of neighborhoods and virtual boundaries of property rights as an arena. The Chinese state is grudgingly willing to accommodate associational activities beyond the physical boundaries of neighborhoods but within the virtual boundaries of property rights. By contrast, the state is quite hostile to associational activities beyond the virtual boundaries of property rights and in more political arenas.