ABSTRACT

A sea of change has occurred in China since the 1978 economic reforms. Bringing together the work of leading scholars specializing in urban China, this book examines what has happened to the Chinese city undergoing multiple transformations during the reform era, with an emphasis on new processes of urban formation and the consequent reconstituted urban spaces. With arguments against the convergence thesis that sees cities everywhere becoming more Western in form and suggestions that the Chinese city is best seen as a multiplex city, Restructuring the Chinese City is an indispensable text for Chinese specialists, urban scholars and advanced students in urban geography, urban planning and China studies.

chapter 1|18 pages

Restructuring the Chinese City

Diverse Processes and Reconstituted Spaces

chapter 2|15 pages

City-Space

Scale Relations and China's Spatial Administrative Hierarchy

chapter 3|18 pages

Space, Scale and the State

Reorganizing Urban Space in China

chapter 5|16 pages

Irregular Trajectories

Illegal Building in Mainland China and Hong Kong

chapter 10|15 pages

Residential Mobility and Urban Change in China

What have we Learned so far?

chapter 11|27 pages

From Work-Unit Compounds to Gated Communities

Housing Inequality and Residential Segregation in Transitional Beijing

chapter 14|18 pages

The Chinese City in Transition

Towards Theorizing China's Urban Restructuring