Selected topics in China Studies: Urban China

In this course, we will study the process of urban development in China since (and largely as a result of) its “reform and opening-up” policies dating back to the early 1980s. The course will examine the position of cities within China’s institutional, demographic and socioeconomic transformations, and will attempt to account for the Chinese situation within the context of -- and making comparisons with -- urban development occurring in other parts of the world. The major purpose of the course is to help students understand these transformational processes and what they meant for China and for the rest of the world. The course will offer a detailed empirical view of China’s urbanization and a rigorous conceptual understanding of city development through a close reading of scholarly research works in the fields of sociology, demography, political science, economics, urban geography, and a wide array of interdisciplinary pursuits.