Commodification and Urban Development: A Case Study of Taiwan

Abstract

This paper aims to identify the processes of commodification of land and housing in Taiwan during the era of rapid economic development since the Second World War. On paper, Taiwan has a quite extraordinarily socialistic philosophy of landownership, based on the teachings of Sun Yat-sen and his doctrine of equalization of land rights. However, there is a very large discrepancy between policy and practice and as a consequence urban development and housing delivery are intensely commodified sectors of the Taiwanese economy. The beneficiaries of urban development have primarily been the middle class and powerful development factions. The specific economic and political institutions, related primarily to its precarious relationship with Mainland China, have shaped the perplexed trajectory of commodification of land and housing in Taiwan.