Abstract:

The accessibility of public services is not only an issue of fairness, but it is also a key measure of common prosperity. In view of rapid urbanization, off-farm workers face undue restrictions on access conditions, hidden disparities in service use, and two-way mismatch between supply and demand. The formation mechanism can be analyzed by “relationship-motivation” framework based on embeddedness theory. The urban government adopted a strategic compromise under a combination of pressure-bearing and performance consideration, weakening the responsiveness of the supply-side. The off-farm workers adopted a negative adaptation under the combination of perceived repulsion and bottom-line retention, weakening the expressiveness of the demand-side. The supply-side constraint and the demand-side constraint were catalyzed in both directions, together shaping accessibility barriers for off-farm workers to get basic public services. Therefore, it is urgent to strengthen responsiveness of supply-side and expressiveness of demand-side and to deepen the mutual promotion of material resource flow and problematic information flow. This will help off-farm workers break through the barrier, obtain basic public services, and receive modernization’s fruits.

Key words: off-farm workers, basic public service, accessibility, formation mechanism