Conceptualizing China's urbanization under reforms

Abstract This paper traces the new trends of urbanization in post-reform China that are incommensurate with those under the ex-socialist regime as well as those in other market and reformed socialist countries. Three paradoxical dynamics appear: a leap forward of urbanization concurrent with the under-urbanized feature, the massive and sustained flow of rural-to-urban migration concomitant with the bulk of migrants without urban citizenship, and the phenomenal reorganization of urban space and the proliferating addition of new cities with inclusion of ample rural attributes. These new developments present a challenging opportunity for theoretical construction. The paper elucidates extant studies, deciphering the ways that they interpret new features of China's urbanization under reforms. Integrating previous insightful but segmented perspectives on various aspects of China's urban transition, the paper argues that, to conceptualizing distinctive political economy of China's urbanization, one must incorporate the fundamentals of China's economic system that account for the historically contingent causes resulting in the dynamics observed.

[1]  R. Chan,et al.  Globalization and the dominance of large cities in contemporary China , 2003 .

[2]  Andrew G. Walder,et al.  China's Transitional Economy , 1996 .

[3]  Li Zhang,et al.  Re-examining China's “Urban” Concept and the Level of Urbanization , 1998, The China Quarterly.

[4]  Laurence J. C. Ma,et al.  Urban Transformation in China, 1949 – 2000: A Review and Research Agenda , 2002 .

[5]  Valerie A. Lewis.  China's Urban Space: Development under Market Socialism , 2009 .

[6]  J. Laurence,et al.  Administrative Changes and Urban Population in China , 1987 .

[7]  B. Berry,et al.  UNDERURBANIZATION POLICIES ASSESSED: CHINA, 1949-1986 , 1989 .

[8]  K. Chan,et al.  Cities with Invisible Walls: Reinterpreting Urbanization in Post-1949 China , 1994 .

[9]  Laurence J. C. Ma.  The State of the Field of Urban China , 2006 .

[10]  A. Marton.  China's Spatial Economic Development: Regional Transformation in the Lower Yangzi Delta , 2000 .

[11]  J. Eade,et al.  Understanding the City: Contemporary and Future Perspectives , 2002 .

[12]  G. Lin.  Toward a Post-Socialist City? Economic Tertiarization and Urban Reformation in the Guangzhou Metropolis, China , 2004 .

[13]  J. Kornai.  What the Change of System From Socialism to Capitalism Does and Does Not Mean , 2000 .

[14]  D. Solinger,et al.  The China Difference: City Studies Under Socialism and Beyond , 2008 .

[15]  Li Zhang,et al.  Foreign Direct Investment and the Formation of Global City-Regions in China , 2007 .

[16]  Terry McGee,et al.  The emergence of desakota regions in Asia: expanding a hypothesis , 1991 .

[17]  Shi Yulong,et al.  The potential and prospect for global cities in China: in the context of the world system , 2002 .

[18]  R. Howitt.  Scale as relation: musical metaphors of geographical scale , 1998 .

[19]  K. Chan,et al.  Urban Population Growth and Urbanization in China Since 1949: Reconstructing a Baseline , 1985, The China Quarterly.

[20]  Li Zhang,et al.  Geographical changes in foreign direct investment and impacts on regional economic integration in China: The case study of the Pan-PRD regionalization , 2007 .

[21]  Xiao-yuan Dong,et al.  Prereform Industry and State Monopsony in China , 2000 .

[22]  K. Chan,et al.  Misconceptions and Complexities in the Study of China's Cities: Definitions, Statistics, and Implications , 2007 .

[23]  Z. Fallenbuchl.  Internal Migration and Economic Development under Socialism: The Case of Poland , 1977 .

[24]  The Change in China's State Governance and its Effects upon Urban Scale , 2007 .

[25]  Y. Wei,et al.  China's Restless Urban Landscapes 1: New Challenges for Theoretical Reconstruction , 2002 .

[26]  I. Szelényi,et al.  The city in the transition to socialism , 1984 .

[27]  Laurence J. C. Ma.  Urban administrative restructuring, changing scale relations and local economic development in China , 2005 .

[28]  Dorothy J. Solinger,et al.  Contesting Citizenship in Urban China: Peasant Migrants, the State, and the Logic of the Market , 2000, The Journal of Asian Studies.

[29]  Fei-ling Wang.  Organizing Through Division and Exclusion: China’s Hukou System , 2005 .

[30]  Y. Wei,et al.  Development Zones, Foreign Investment, and Global City Formation in Shanghai , 2005 .

[31]  H. Yeung,et al.  Theorizing Economic Geographies of Asia , 2003, Economic Geography.

[32]  Li Zhang,et al.  Self-help in housing and chengzhongcun in China's urbanization , 2003 .

[33]  A. Yeh,et al.  Urban Development in Post-Reform China: State, Market, and Space , 2006 .

[34]  G. Lin,et al.  The Chinese globalizing cities: national centers of globalization and urban transformation , 2004 .

[35]  X. Zhao,et al.  Decentralization Reforms and Regionalism in China: A review , 1999 .

[36]  Chun Yang,et al.  Foreign-investment-induced Exo-urbanisation in the Pearl River Delta, China , 1997 .

[37]  A. Yeh,et al.  City profile - Guangzhou , 2003 .

[38]  Dennis C. Mueller,et al.  Property and Industrial Organization in Communist and Capitalist Nations. , 1973 .

[39]  K. Chan,et al.  Urbanization in China in the 1990s: New Definition, Different Series, and Revised Trends * , 2003 .

[40]  D. Solinger.  Citizenship Issues in China's Internal Migration: Comparisons with Germany and Japan , 1999 .

[41]  J. Logan.  The new Chinese city : globalization and market reform , 2002 .

[42]  R. Chan,et al.  Self-help housing strategy for temporary population in Guangzhou, China ☆ , 2003 .

[43]  Zhiqiang Feng,et al.  State-Sponsored and Spontaneous Urbanization in the Pearl River Delta of South China, 1980-1998 , 2002 .

[44]  Li Zhang,et al.  Reinterpretation of China's under-urbanization: a systemic perspective , 2003 .

[45]  Jianfa Shen.  Understanding dual‐track urbanisation in post‐reform China: conceptual framework and empirical analysis , 2006 .

[46]  G. Lin.  The growth and structural change of Chinese cities: a contextual and geographic analysis , 2002 .

[47]  R. Drewett,et al.  Urban Europe: a study of growth and decline , 1982 .

[48]  C. Pannell,et al.  China's Continuing Urban Transition , 2002 .

[49]  中華人民共和国国家統計局.  China statistical yearbook , 1988 .

[50]  D. Weimer.  The political economy of property rights : institutional change and credibility in the reform of centrally planned economies , 1997 .

[51]  East-West Environment,et al.  The Extended Metropolis: Settlement Transition in Asia , 1991, The Journal of Asian Studies.

[52]  Kevin Honglin Zhang,et al.  What Explains China's Rising Urbanisation in the Reform Era? , 2002 .

[53]  D. Solinger.  China's urban transients in the transition from socialism and the collapse of the communist 'urban public goods regime' , 1995 .

[54]  Christopher J. Smith.  THE TRANSFORMATIVE IMPACT OF CAPITAL AND LABOR MOBILITY ON THE CHINESE CITY , 2000 .

[55]  K. Chan,et al.  National Statistics On Internal Migration in China: Comparability Problems , 2001 .

[56]  Fulong Wu,et al.  Transformation of the Chinese City, 1995-2005 , 2006 .

[57]  Jieming Zhu,et al.  Local Growth Coalition: The Context and Implications of China's Gradualist Urban Land Reforms , 1999 .

[58]  G. Enyedi.  Social change and urban restructuring in Central Europe , 1998 .

[59]  Zhongdong Ma,et al.  China's Floating Population: New Evidence from the 2000 Census , 2004 .

[60]  J. Laurence,et al.  The Chinese city in transition: towards theorizing China’s urban restructuring , 2005 .

[61]  J. Brada,et al.  The Paradox of China's Growing Under-Urbanization , 2006 .

[62]  A. Yeh,et al.  The New Land Development Process and Urban Development in Chinese Cities , 1996 .

[63]  S. Ho,et al.  The State, Land System, and Land Development Processes in Contemporary China , 2005 .

[64]  Laurence J. C. Ma,et al.  Urbanisation from Below: The Growth of Towns in Jiangsu, China , 1994 .

[65]  F. Deng,et al.  Uneven land reform and urban sprawl in China: the case of Beijing , 2004 .

[66]  Daniel Fu Keung Wong,et al.  Rural migrant workers in urban China: living a marginalised life , 2007 .

[67]  D. Goodkind,et al.  China's Floating Population: Definitions, Data and Recent Findings , 2002 .

[68]  G. Ofer.  Economizing on Urbanization in Socialist Countries: Historical Necessity or Socialist Strategy , 1977 .

[69]  Denise Young,et al.  Urbanisation, Agriculture and Industrialisation in China, 1952-91 , 1998 .

[70]  G. Lin.  Red Capitalism in South China: Growth and Development of the Pearl River Delta , 1997 .

[71]  G. Andrusz,et al.  Cities after socialism : urban and regional change and conflict in post-socialist societies , 1996 .

[72]  Xiubing Li,et al.  Scenario Analysis on Urbanization and Rural-Urban Migration in China , 2003 .

[73]  Jae Ho Chung,et al.  China's “City System” in Flux: Explaining Post-Mao Administrative Changes , 2004, The China Quarterly.

[74]  K. Chan,et al.  Hukou and non-hukou migrations in China: comparisons and contrasts. , 1999, International journal of population geography : IJPG.

[75]  C. Cartier.  City-space: scale relations and China's spatial administrative hierarchy , 2005 .

[76]  L. Putterman.  The Role of Ownership and Property Rights in China's Economic Transition , 1995, The China Quarterly.

[77]  Laurence J. C. Ma,et al.  Restructuring the Chinese City: Changing Society, Economy and Space , 2004 .

[78]  Laurence J. C. Ma,et al.  China's Urban Population Statistics: A Critical Evaluation , 2005 .

[79]  János Kornai.  The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism , 1992 .

[80]  Alan A. Brown,et al.  Internal migration : a comparative perspective , 1977 .

[81]  R. Kirkby,et al.  Urbanization in China: Town and Country in a Developing Economy, 1949-2000 A.D. , 1986 .

[82]  M. Harloe.  Captive cities : studies in the political economy of cities and regions , 1977 .

[83]  K. Marx.  A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy , 1859 .

[84]  Ivan Sxelenyi.  Cities under Socialism—and After , 2008 .

[85]  New Paths to Urbanization in China: Seeking More Balanced Patterns , 1999 .

[86]  R. Howitt.  Scale and the other: Levinas and geography , 2002 .

[87]  Laurence J. C. Ma,et al.  Native Place, Migration and the Emergence of Peasant Enclaves in Beijing , 1998, The China Quarterly.