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| THE CHARACTERISTICS AND FORMATION MECHANISM OF SMALL INFORMAL MARKET IN THE LARGE-SCALE URBAN DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS: A CASE STUDY OF WUZHONG MARKET IN WUHAN |
| CHEN Kun-lun1, HOU Qiu-wei1, ZHANG Zuo2 |
1. Faculty of Resources and Environmental Science, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China;
2. School of Business, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China |
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Abstract In recent years, the researches on informal economy from the spatial view have attracted a lot of attention in urban geography. Meanwhile various informal economy phenomena appeared during the fast urbanization in China. Wuzhong small informal market was selected as our study case. As a large-scale urban development project, "Chu River&Han Street" is a core part of the Urban Central Culture Area of Wuhan. It is located in the geometric center of Wuhan city, which is between the East Lake and the Sha Lake. Wuzhong small informal market is situated in the north of the intersection between the northwest of Xingguosouth Road and the East Lake RoadThe historical development process was restored by referring to a large number of documents and historical data. We found that the market once sited before Wuhan Heavy Machinery Factory was the predecessor of the informal market. The characteristics of spatial distribution and the social and economic of the small informal market were analyzed by the plotting of field survey. The related appeal and attitude of different subjects was obtained by in-depth interviews. We found that there exists some special status for the small informal market, including that the sharp differentiation of urban landscape, these economic activities related to subsistence, the transitivity and temporality of these stalls and the liquidity of some street hawkers. The presence of informal market provides strong support to the normal running of large projects. Although the informal market is temporary and transition, it provides powerful supports for the normal running of large projects and the normal living keeping of the located residents.
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Received: 08 September 2014
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2015, Vol. 30 
