1st Edition

China's Urban Space Development under market socialism

    288 Pages 54 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    288 Pages 54 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    China’s urban growth is unparalleled in the history of global urbanization, and will undoubtedly create huge challenges to China as it modernizes its society. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this book presents an overview of the radical transformation of China’s urban space since the 1970s, arguing that to study the Chinese urbanization process one must recognize the distinctive political economy of China.

    After a long period as a planned socialist economy, China’s rapid entry into the global economy has raised suggestions that modernization in China will inevitably result in urban patterns and features like those of cities in developed market economies. This book argues that this is unlikely in the short term, because processes of urban transition in China must be interpreted through the lens of a unique and unprecedented juxtaposition of socialism and the market economy, which is leading to distinctive patterns of Chinese urbanization.

    Richly illustrated with maps, diagrams and in-depth case studies, this book will be an invaluable resource to students and scholars of urban economics and policy, geography, and the development of China.

    1. Introduction  2. The Political Economy of Chinese Urbanization  3. 'Seeing like a State': The Urbanization Project in China Post-1978  4. Representing Urbanization in China: Official and Unofficial Readings of the Process  5. City Core and the Periphery: The Case of Guangdong and Hong Kong Extended Metropolitan Region  6. Emerging Urbanization in the Pearl River Delta: A Case Study of Dongguang  7. Manipulating the Margins: The Case of Shanghai  8. Rural Agglomeration and Urbanization in the Lower Yangzi Delta: The 'Urban Echo' in Kunshan  9. Divergent Urbanization Paths in the Shenyang-Dalian Urban Corridor, Liaoning Province  10. Reviewing the Case Studies: Dimensions of Scale in the Chinese Urbanization Process  11. Conclusion: Rewriting China’s Urban Future

    Biography

    Terry McGee is currently Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia

    George C.S. Lin is Professor and Head of the School of Geography, The University of Hong Kong.

    Andrew M. Marton is Associate Professor and Reader in Chinese Geography in the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham, UK.

    Mark Yaolin Wang is Senior Lecturer in the School of Social and Environmental Enquiry, The University of Melbourne, Australia.

    Jiaping Wu is a Research Fellow with School for Social and Policy Research at Charles Darwin University, Australia.

    'Both theoretically and empirically, the book is an important contribution to advancing the scholarship of urbanization and globalization. It is a must-read for students, researchers and practitioners in all fields who are interested in China’s development.' - C. Cindy Fan, Department of Geography, University of California, Los Angeles, California.

    'China’s Urban Space is a timely contribution to our understanding of China’s metropolitan areas and mega-city regions. The team of well-established researchers led by Terry McGee, who pioneered in the study of extended metropolitan areas in Southeast Asia, presents their first-hand studies over two decades into this fine-written research book.... Overall, the authors should be congratulated for their major achievement of developing a model of Chinese city-region. The breadth of this book is impressive. The book is informative and well illustrated. I highly recommend the book to those who are interested in the ‘city region’ in the world.' - Fulong Wu, Cardiff University, Regional Studies Journal

    'This is a comprehensive benchmark study of China’s urbanisation; it should suit undergraduate courses in geography, policy studies, development studies and urban economics, as well as in China and area studies more generally. It provides an inter-disciplinary approach which is compelling; it has useful historical background to China’s urban transition since 1978, and this is enlivened by solid data and insights about political manoeuvres at various levels of government.' - Michael Keane, Queensland University of Technology in Australia

     

    "Overall, the book offers fresh new theoretical perspectives and abundant empirical evidence contributed by multiple authors. As such, it is a must read for scholars and policymakers interested in the latest urbanization processes in China. ...the book contains exceptionally rich information and generates exciting topics that will no doubt influence future studies in the area of China’s urbanization." - Guo Chen, Michigan State University