Reappropriating Public Space in Nanchang, China: A Study of Informal Street Vendors
Since China’s shift to market socialism, many marginalized by this process work as informal street vendors where they reappropriate public space in order to survive―a practice at odds with urban … Continue reading
Is global inequality getting better or worse? A critique of the World Bank’s convergence narrative
The dominant narrative of global income inequality is one of convergence. Recent high-profile publications by Branko Milanovic and the World Bank claim that the global Gini coefficient has declined since … Continue reading
Smart-Eco Cities in China: Trends and Profiles 2016
The ‘smart-eco city’ concept captures the recent trend for future-oriented urban development schemes that display both ‘green’ and ‘smart’ ambitions. More precisely, the smart-eco city is defined as “an experimental … Continue reading
Transport Infrastructure, City Productivity Growth and Sectoral Reallocation: Evidence from China
This paper examines the effects of economic integration resulting from highway construction on aggregate productivity and the spatial distribution of industries. To do so, it constructs a unique dataset of … Continue reading
Media Development with Chinese Characteristics
Iginio Gagliardone – China’s concessionary loans and support to development projects have tended to shift balances of power by favouring certain actors over others and have challenged existing development paradigms, … Continue reading
How Chinese Urbanism Is Transforming African Cities
The factory of the world has a new export: urbanism. More and more Chinese-made buildings, infrastructure, and urban districts are sprouting up across Africa, and this development is changing the … Continue reading
Contesting speculative urbanisation and strategising discontents
Hyun Bang Shin – I have argued in this essay that China’s speculative urbanisation is both an ideological and a political project that disrupts and destroys the lives of the … Continue reading
Urban China: Toward Efficient, Inclusive, and Sustainable Urbanization
The joint report by the World Bank and the Development Research Center of China’s State Council, Urban China: Toward Efficient, Inclusive and Sustainable Urbanization, includes six priority areas for a … Continue reading
The End of Cheap Labor
Mitali Das and Papa N’Diaye – China is on the eve of a demographic shift that will have profound consequences on its economic and social landscape. Within a few years … Continue reading
