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China has a rich history of urban development, in which distinctive city-structures have developed. The legacies of the past, including the Maoist socialist era, in respect of inter alia city configuration, types of neighbourhood, ways of life, and architecture, are still visible in cities throughout the country. Until recently, China was predominantly a rural society, urban development notwithstanding. From the 1980s however a rapid transition into an urban society is occurring. China’s geography and ‘face’ is being transformed at an unprecedented rate by urban development. A major impulse to this is an unprecedented mobility from the rural areas to the cities, notwithstanding institutional hindrances. The ramifications for Chinese society and institutions are wide-ranging. Increasingly, the cities are the places where economic and social development in China under reform, changes in politics, governance, and culture are being played out. At the same time, Chinese urbanisation and city development is occurring under circumstances that –economically, institutionally, socially and culturally – diverges significantly from the ‘Western’ context.
This course deals with the process of urban development, the dynamics of cities, as well as processes of change in cities, framed in a theoretical and policy perspective. It first considers urban development at the macro-level: the urban system and urban structure in historical and contemporary perspective. Next, at the intra-urban level restructuring of the socio-economic and socio-cultural fabrics are considered as well as the transformation of cityscapes. This relates to cities as sites of production, of investment, and of consumption, impacted by globalization. How these frame and reshape the lives of city-dwellers has been the subject of not only much academic writing but also cinematic expression by many of China’s prominent filmmakers. Part of the course will be devoted to this cinematic expression and its academic analysis. Economic, environmental, human costs of recent relentless change, the consequences for the urban condition of continuing in similar fashion, are engendering a reorientation of urban policy and planning towards ‘Sustainable Cities’. This may be situated in the larger framework of the ‘harmonious society’ drive of the current leadership of the country. The prospects of this reorientation is the subject of the last part of the course.
Format
This course will comprise of a few lectures, student-led seminars (based on readings) that include brief presentations and discussion about statements prepared in advance; student seminars requiring group work, and individual essay work, focusing on the analysis of a specific city. For the module on cinematic expressions participants will have to carry out ‘take-home’ assignments, requiring film viewing and critical reflection on questions given.
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