This paper describes the rise of ‘urbanism’ in China. Following Louis Wirth, urbanism here refers to a way of life characterized by anonymous, heterogeneous and diverse social relations. In contrast to the lack of urbanism in Mao’s era, urbanism is being promoted under China’s market...

Chinese cities are experiencing rapid urban expansion and rampant land conversions in periurban areas. Has China’s suburban growth gone beyond commonly noted ‘suburbanisation’? To what extent does fast metropolitan growth reflect state entrepreneurialism after economic reform? The authors...

Within the process of urban expansion through land requisition in China, farmers' de facto rights to collective land, including farmland and housing plots (zhaijidi), are forcibly acquired by the state and thereafter redistributed to private developers, to facilitate urban-based economic growth....

This paper aims to understand the formation of poor neighbourhoods through examining the transformation of a suburban industrial district into a poverty neighbourhood in the city of Nanjing. The notion of a poverty of transition is developed to show how such a transformation occurs in the...

The spatial distribution and locational characteristics of land development have changed dramatically in Chinese cities since the land reform of 1987 which allowed the paid transfer of land-use rights—i.e. land leasing. This has led to the rapid transformation of the urban spatial...

Housing provision in a socialist country is generally characterised by the dominance of public housing. However, provision of public housing is a complicated process, which involves various social agencies. In the case of China, the simple notion of 'state provision' covers huge differences...

This study considers recent changes in the built environment of Chinese metropolitan areas during the transition from a planned to a market economy. Implications of this transition include changes in the political economy (increasing localisation, diversification of investment and the growth of...

China's changing urban development processes and urban landscapes in the transition towards a more market-oriented economy have received extensive research attention in recent years. Relatively, the governing of Chinese cities is still underresearched. This article aims to analyse the forces...