What is absent from the current monitoring: Idleness of rural industrial land in suburban Shanghai

Rapid urbanization has generated an excessive demand for land in suburban China, while the supply is limited. Concurrently, prevalent land idleness in rural areas has received little political and academic attention. Drawing on evidence from suburbs of Shanghai, this paper examines the monitoring of idle rural industrial land. We argue that idle rural industrial land is absent from the current monitoring, and that the ambiguous collective ownership in rural China has not only prevented effective management of idle land, but also imposed the greatest obstacle to the redevelopment of these idle sites. Hence, the clarification of collective ownership will help to achieve more efficient use of rural land in suburban China.