THEORY FROM EMPTY LAND: Informal Commoning Outside/Within Economies and Ecologies of the Urban

Urban Farm DB summary

An ethnographic study in Chongqing, Southwest China, examined informal peri-urban agriculture on undeveloped land created by state-led expansion since the early 2000s. This "empty land" is informally used by displaced peasants and migrant workers for agriculture. The study reveals that these spaces are ambiguously positioned outside urban governance and are under threat of rapid enclosure within urban accumulation regimes.