Rural-Urban transformation in Contemporary China

Lynam, Ava (TU Berlin)

Huang, Huang (Tongji University)

Block Seminar

1. Block: Sa. 11.12.2021, 10:00 – 17:00 Uhr

2. Block: So. 12.12.2021, 10:00 – 17:00 Uhr

3. Block: Sa. 18.12.2021, 10:00 – 17:00 Uhr

4. Block: So. 19.12.2021, 10:00 – 17:00 Uhr

Online: Zoom

This seminar is focused on the momentous and fragmented transformation of the Chinese countryside that has been driven by unprecedent scales of urbanisation over recent decades. Following the 1978 Economic Reform, increasingly market-oriented development practices have resulted in major rural-urban migration surges that have driven the formation of continually expanding mega-city regions. At the same time, these urbanisation processes have greatly exacerbated socio-economic polarisation, particularly between urban and rural areas. Urban-rural transitional zones, or urban-rural interfaces, have thus become the ‘operational landscapes’ as the stage upon which the country’s multi-dimensional restructuring processes unfold. In recent years, urban-rural integration has become a key development strategy, yet a political appreciation of the urban prevails, while new stratifications and inequalities have emerged. In this seminar we use the perspective of urban planning, architecture, and sociology to investigate this profound rural-urban transformation in contemporary China. We do so by examining the urban-rural relationship through the topics of inequality, informality, migration, and exclusion/inclusion, and their relationship with different development policies and forms of governance.

• MA-TGWT WTC

Lynam, Ava (TU Berlin)

Huang, Huang (Tongji University)

Block Seminar

1. Block: Sa. 11.12.2021, 10:00 – 17:00 Uhr

2. Block: So. 12.12.2021, 10:00 – 17:00 Uhr

3. Block: Sa. 18.12.2021, 10:00 – 17:00 Uhr

4. Block: So. 19.12.2021, 10:00 – 17:00 Uhr

Online: Zoom

This seminar is focused on the momentous and fragmented transformation of the Chinese countryside that has been driven by unprecedent scales of urbanisation over recent decades. Following the 1978 Economic Reform, increasingly market-oriented development practices have resulted in major rural-urban migration surges that have driven the formation of continually expanding mega-city regions. At the same time, these urbanisation processes have greatly exacerbated socio-economic polarisation, particularly between urban and rural areas. Urban-rural transitional zones, or urban-rural interfaces, have thus become the ‘operational landscapes’ as the stage upon which the country’s multi-dimensional restructuring processes unfold. In recent years, urban-rural integration has become a key development strategy, yet a political appreciation of the urban prevails, while new stratifications and inequalities have emerged. In this seminar we use the perspective of urban planning, architecture, and sociology to investigate this profound rural-urban transformation in contemporary China. We do so by examining the urban-rural relationship through the topics of inequality, informality, migration, and exclusion/inclusion, and their relationship with different development policies and forms of governance.

• MA-TGWT WTC

Lynam, Ava (TU Berlin)

Huang, Huang (Tongji University)

Block Seminar

1. Block: Sa. 11.12.2021, 10:00 – 17:00 Uhr

2. Block: So. 12.12.2021, 10:00 – 17:00 Uhr

3. Block: Sa. 18.12.2021, 10:00 – 17:00 Uhr

4. Block: So. 19.12.2021, 10:00 – 17:00 Uhr

Online: Zoom

This seminar is focused on the momentous and fragmented transformation of the Chinese countryside that has been driven by unprecedent scales of urbanisation over recent decades. Following the 1978 Economic Reform, increasingly market-oriented development practices have resulted in major rural-urban migration surges that have driven the formation of continually expanding mega-city regions. At the same time, these urbanisation processes have greatly exacerbated socio-economic polarisation, particularly between urban and rural areas. Urban-rural transitional zones, or urban-rural interfaces, have thus become the ‘operational landscapes’ as the stage upon which the country’s multi-dimensional restructuring processes unfold. In recent years, urban-rural integration has become a key development strategy, yet a political appreciation of the urban prevails, while new stratifications and inequalities have emerged. In this seminar we use the perspective of urban planning, architecture, and sociology to investigate this profound rural-urban transformation in contemporary China. We do so by examining the urban-rural relationship through the topics of inequality, informality, migration, and exclusion/inclusion, and their relationship with different development policies and forms of governance.

• MA-TGWT WTC