The Influence of Economic Situation on Interpersonal Relationship in Urban Village

Abstract

Ever since the reform and opening up of China, gradual change of interpersonal relationship has been observed. The interpersonal relationship in urban village is one important and interesting phenomenon as the urban village changed intensively since 1980s. However, the interpersonal relationship in urban village has received little attention in research. Some previous researches investigate the interpersonal relationship of aboriginal residents in urban village, in the condition of stratification of earnings. But, most of the urban village residents are migrants, as the urban village provides the inexpensive accommodation. The aim of this research is to investigate interpersonal relationship in contemporary urban village in China, based on cased studies. Results showed that the interpersonal relationship in urban village is mainly about the migrants, which composed most proportion of urban village population. With the chaos and order of economic situation in urban village, guanxi, one kind of interpersonal relationship featured with China cultural background, becomes obvious or fades in the daily life or work. Accordingly, the fellow townsmen relationship, which can provide with the stable and long-existing protection for the participants becomes more or less important. This research implies that the economic situation and income influence the importance of different types of interpersonal relationship in urban village and can contribute to a better understanding of interpersonal relationship in urban village in contemporary China.