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Multi-Level Housing Governance in Rural Settlement Lin & Jia

these two controlling systems and led to a Family is the basic unit of everyday life
series of contradictions between them in and social production in an agricultural
different periods. This may be the key to society. It refers to a group of relatives with
understanding the transformation of the built closed blood relations who live together and
environment in the village. share common wealth to some extent. During
The higher level (like the settlement the premodern times, there were three major
levels) implies the general trends of rural types of family: nuclear family, linear family,
development that are controlled more by the and extended family, corresponding to
governmental powers. It is the result of different family structures. Nuclear family
collective behaviors. Meanwhile, the lower has two generations containing a couple of
level (like the infill level) indicates the way of adult parents and their underage children.
the ordinaries’ everyday life, which depends Linear family has three generations
more on personal experiences. Furthermore, a containing grandparents, parents, and
hierarchy is implied in the six levels that underage children, all the nuclear families
higher levels can influence the from the same grandfather can be included.
transformations on lower levels. However, Extended family can include the couple and
the delivery of impact is one way that the their married sons or even other relatives.
lower ones can do nothing about the higher Home and country isomorphism is an
ones. important feature of Chinese society during
the premodern period. The relationships
among people were basically extended by the
4.2 Transformation of spatial features family in the context of agricultural society
and governance system connected by blood relations, which led to a
The organizational form in the grass-root political system with family as a basic unit.
society of rural China has changed greatly in Instead of a formal government
the past 400 years, from the Qing dynasty to department, village as the unit cell of Chinese
contemporary times. A sophisticated rural society has been governed by unofficial
management system had been established by groups. The lowest level of official
the local villagers themselves in premodern administrative department is the county level.
times for hundreds of years. However, the Below the county level, all the rural
self-governance system has been broken by communities, such as town and village, are
the transformation of ideology during the operated by nongovernmental organizations.
Maoist period, a socialist type of production A lineage group, as the coalition of
brigade replaced the traditional self- families, was responsible to rule the village in
governance system in rural China. which they lived. In the rural society during
The grass-root society in the Qing the premodern times, the families bearing the
dynasty and the Republican period in rural same surname and sharing the same ancestor
China belonged to the traditional social could trace back their constitutive lineages.
formation. It lasted for hundreds of years in Both these two terms can be used
imperial period and was kept during the interchangeably to refer to a type of
Republican period. The political powerholder patriarchal organization [28-29] in China. The
has been changed over for several times, and individual families belonged to the same
the bureaucracy fell into chaos among the lineage group did not necessarily have strong
high official departments, whereas the rural blood relations. Sometimes, some family
grass-root society has not changed much. The groups who shared the same surname and
organizational formation and management lived in neighboring areas united for mutual
approach of villages in the Qing dynasty have interests.
been inherited in Republican period. The However, they would try to manufacture
social structure in rural China was retained, a common lineage history to trace to the same
and the rural governance system continued. ancestor, making an imagination of family

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