Restructuring the Chinese City Changing Society, Economy and Space

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.

Preface 1. Introduction: Restructuring the Chinese City 2. Chinese Cities in Transition 3. Space, Scale and the State: Re-Organizing Urban Space in China 4. Dual Land Market and Internal Spatial Structure of Chinese Cities 5. Irregular Trajectories: Illegal Building on the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong 6. Globalization and the Development of New Central Business Districts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou 7. Historical Memory, Community-Building, and Place-Making in Neighborhood Shanghai 8. Differences among Brothers: Urban Development in Three Shanghai Urban Districts 9. Industrial Restructuring and Urban Spatial Transformation in Xi'an 10. Form Work-Unit Compounds to Gated Communities: Housing Inequality and Residential Segregation in Transitional Beijing 11. Migrant Residential Distribution and Metropolitan Spatial Development in Shanghai
12. Chengzhongcun as Migrant Settlements and the Impacts of Development Policy in Chinese Cities Conclusion: Beyond Urban China

Laurence J.C. Ma, for many years a Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Akron, is currently an independent scholar residing in California. His work has been focused on China's urban development and population. He has authored, co-authored and co-edited eight books.

Fulong Wu has published many papers on urban spatial structure in Chinese cities, urban housing and land development. His numerous papers have appeared in such journals as Environment and Planning, Urban Studies and Urban Geography.