The challenges of China–India comparative urban studies

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Mark W. Frazier
Keyword(s):  
Urban Studies ◽  
Population Studies ◽  
National Level ◽  
Urban China ◽  
First Century ◽  
Spatial Transformation ◽  
Land Conflicts ◽  
Urbanization In China ◽  
Governance Infrastructure ◽  
India And China

Abstract Scholarship on urban China and urban India has been prolific. Studies have separately addressed urban processes of migration, spatial transformation, governance, infrastructure, land conflicts, policing, and more. However, research on these areas has rarely intersected. This article discusses the challenges of comparison in China–India urban studies, and examines recent works through an analysis of “styles and scales of comparison.” Some seek to explain national-level variations by studying selected cities in each country. Others identify convergence and divergence in the context of broader global processes, and some incorporate historical trajectories to structure a temporal comparison. Because the most rapid periods of urbanization in the first half of the twenty-first century will take place in India and China and will soon account almost half of the planet's urban population, studies of urbanization in India and China are of great importance. Careful reflection on the study of urbanization in China–India studies can also re-center urban studies away from the historically dominant American/Eurocentric perspectives.

From Chicago to China and India: Studying the City in the Twenty-First Century

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 497-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuefei Ren
Keyword(s):  
Urban Studies ◽  
Neighborhood Effects ◽  
Urban Sociology ◽  
Urban China ◽  
First Century ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Urban Networks ◽  
China And India ◽  
Social Polarization ◽  
The City

Since the last quarter of the twentieth century, cities in the Global South have seen extraordinary growth, with China and India as the epicenters of urbanization. This essay critically assesses the state of the field of global urban studies and focuses particularly on the scholarship relating to urban China and India. The essay identifies three dominant paradigms in the scholarship: the global city thesis, neoliberalism, and postcolonialism. In contrast to US urban sociology, which is often preoccupied with the question of how neighborhood effects reproduce inequality, global urban studies account for a much wider array of urban processes, such as global urban networks, social polarization, and the transformation of the built environment. This essay points out the disconnect between US urban sociology and global urban studies and proposes a comparative approach as a way to bridge the divide.

The Oxford Handbook of International Climate Change Law

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
National Level ◽  
First Century ◽  
Trading Systems ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
Weather Patterns ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Legal Frameworks ◽  
International Climate Change

Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our time, and has become one of the defining issues of the twenty-first century. The radical changes which both developed and developing countries will need to make, in economic and in legal terms, to respond to climate change are unprecedented. International law, including treaty regimes, institutions, and customary international law, needs to address the myriad challenges and consequences of climate change, including variations in the weather patterns, sea level rise, and the resulting migration of peoples. This book provides an authoritative overview of all aspects of international climate change law as it currently stands, with guidance for how it should develop in the future. This book sets out to analyse the legal issues that surround this vitally important but still emerging area of international law. This book addresses the major legal dimensions of the problems caused by climate change: not only in the content and nature of the international legal frameworks, which need implementation at the national level, but also the development of carbon trading systems as a means of reducing the costs of meeting emission reduction targets. After an introduction to the field, the book assesses the relevant institutions, the key applicable principles of international law, the international mitigation regime and its consequences, and climate change litigation, before providing perspectives focused upon specific countries or regions.

scholarly journals India

2021 ◽  
pp. 157-179
Author(s):  
Hai-Anh H. Dang ◽  
Peter Lanjouw
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Local Level ◽  
National Level ◽  
Early Years ◽  
First Century ◽  
Inequality Of Opportunity ◽  
Education Outcomes ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
The Village ◽  
Horizontal Inequalities

India in the early years of the twenty-first century achieved per capita growth rates that were historically unprecedented. Poverty reduction also accelerated. There is concern, however, that this growth was accompanied by a rise in inequality. In this chapter, we report on a research project that examines inequality trends and dynamics at the all-India level over three decades up to 2011/12 and contrasts these with evidence at the level of the village or the urban block. We further unpack inequality to explore dynamics in terms of the movement of people within the income distribution over time. The assessment of mobility is informed both by evidence at the very local level, and by aggregate, national-level trends. The study attempts, further, to assess horizontal inequalities into a measure of inequality of opportunity as captured by inter-generational mobility in education outcomes.

scholarly journals The Viewpoint of The Young Muhammadiyah Intellectuals towards The Religious Minority Groups in Indonesia

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 282-305
Author(s):  
Syamsul Arifin ◽  
Nafik Muthohirin
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
National Level ◽  
Alternative Media ◽  
First Century ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
Positive Contribution ◽  
Religious Minority ◽  
Complicated Problem ◽  
Basic Rights

Muhammadiyah keeps onto make a positive contribution to the progress of Indonesia. In the first century of its advent, Muhammadiyah focused on advancing education, health, and compensation to the du‘afā, while through the 47th Congress in Makassar (2015), Muhammadiyah had issued an important point which emphasizes on the minority groups. This article examines a number of issues dealing with the views that underlie young Muhammadiyah intellectuals in voicing partiality towards the religious minority, the role or form of alignments and the implications of these views on thought upheavals within Muhammadiyah internally and at the national level. The study finds that the young Muhammadiyah intellectuals play a pivotal role in fighting for the basic rights of a religious minority which continues to face the complicated problem of citizenship. The data has been focused on advocacy and intellectual works, including a literature review of statements of attitudes, published books, journals, research reports, and opinions in the national mainstream and alternative media.

The Evolving Relationship between Authoritarianism and EU Attitudes

2021 ◽  
pp. 97-114
Author(s):  
Erik R. Tillman
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
National Level ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
First Century ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
National Community ◽  
Perception Of Threat ◽  
Unskilled Workers ◽  
The Eu

This chapter examines the evolving relationship between authoritarianism and EU attitudes from the early 1990s until 2017. Up until the early 1990s, EU attitudes were structured primarily by economic concerns. The economic ‘winners’ of European integration (e.g. professionals) supported the EU more than the ‘losers’ (e.g. unskilled workers). With the debate over the EU centred increasingly on socio-cultural issues, the structure of EU attitudes has shifted—activating the perception of threat among high authoritarians. In the 1990s, there is no relationship between authoritarianism and EU attitudes, but a negative relationship emerges in the twenty-first century. Moreover, this relationship is stronger in those countries that had more national-level party conflict over the EU. Because this conflict resulted from the emergence of anti-EU parties, this result indicates that high authoritarians became more likely to oppose the EU in those countries where Eurosceptical parties were more successful in advancing the message that the EU threatens national community. These results suggest that the evolution of EU attitudes reflects the growing perception of threat to national community and sovereignty—and this evolution has been strongest where Eurosceptical political elites have been more influential.

The Anxious Middle Class of Urban China

2019 ◽  
pp. 207-230
Author(s):  
Tai-lok Lui ◽  
Shuo Liu
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Chinese Cities ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
New Class ◽  
The Social ◽  
Drastic Increase ◽  
Major Transformation ◽  
Urbanization In China ◽  
Foreign Brands

One of the most notable features of urbanization in China in the past two decades is the rise of an urban middle class. From the proliferation of nightlife entertainment in urban hot spots to the consumption of luxurious items and/or foreign brands, the drastic increase in car ownership to the growth of gated communities, cityscape in contemporary China has undergone drastic changes in the course of urbanization and socio-economic re-stratification. The rise of a newly formed middle class in the major cities is both an agent in shaping the changing cityscape and an outcome of current urban development. This chapter, drawing upon the authors’ observations conducted in a suburban middle-classcommunity in Beijing in 2007-2017 and the study of the middle class in Shanghai since the mid-1990s, reports on the emergence and formation of an urban middle class in contemporary Chinese cities. It is argued that this middle class came into existence when China’s economy was marketized and the social structure had undergone a major transformation as a result of such economic changes. Within a period of 20-25 years, there witnessed the birth of a middle class in the context of the transition to a post-socialist economy, the formation of new class identities and lifestyles, and growing class-related anxieties. Our discussion covers the formation of this urban middle class, its social and cultural outlooks, and an analysis of how their class interests shape the social landscape of the Chinese cities.

Learning from Chicago (and LA)?

2019 ◽  
pp. 61-80
Author(s):  
Bart Wissink
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Gated Communities ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Urban Theory ◽  
Underlying Assumption ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Development Trajectories ◽  
Comparative Urbanism

This chapter questions the contemporary relevance of Western urban theory for China. It argues that urban theory generally prioritises time over space, stressing the universal character of urban transformation in different places. Meanwhile Western cities are presented as prototypes of this transformation. Human ecology, for instance presented Chicago as model of modern urbanism, while the L.A. School of urbanism sees Los Angeles as the epitome of the post-modern period. Debunking the underlying assumption of singular urban logics and development trajectories, the chapter then takes inspiration from modes of theorising that focus on the localisation of global developments in specific cities and develop related localised conceptualisations. It employs this perspective to reflect on the urban China literature. Acknowledging that this literature has come a long way in a short time, it suggests that urban China research borrows concepts from the Western urban studies literature with ease, but that comparisons at the same time are short-circuited with reference to Chinese ‘exceptionalism’. This is mirrored in a remarkable underrepresentation of Chinese urban scholars in the comparative urbanism discussion. Research into Chinese ‘gated communities’ is then presented as illustration. The chapter concludes that there is considerable scope for conceptual renewal, which would benefit both urban China research and the urban studies literature in general.

scholarly journals Knowledge circulation in urban geography/urban studies, 1990–2010: Testing the discourse of Anglo-American hegemony through publication and citation patterns

Urban Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lily Kong ◽  
Junxi Qian
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Dominant Position ◽  
American Hegemony ◽  
Knowledge Circulation ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Anglophone World

This article approaches the question of Anglo-American hegemony in urban studies by examining publication and citation patterns. The past one or two decades have witnessed critical arguments about how knowledge production in social sciences is characterised by centre–periphery relations, and risks universalising US–American and European knowledge and epistemology. While not much systematic analysis has been done to address the extent to which urban knowledge has been shaped by Anglo-American centrism, it is not difficult to tell that the field is dominated by the Anglophone world in terms of authorship, institutional affiliation, the cities under scrutiny, and the urban theories arising. This article undertakes systematic analysis by collecting papers published between 1990 and 2010, in journals indexed by the categories ‘Geography’ and ‘Urban Studies’ in the ISI Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) database. We develop a series of analyses by examining the sites of knowledge production, contributors, key research interests, and the circulation/impact of works. We also single out research on urban China to explore questions such as the place of research on non-Anglo-American contexts in international forums. In all, this article argues that the dominant position of the Anglophone world in the production and circulation of urban knowledge is clearly discernible. But the Anglophone dominance does not necessarily mean that other research interests and orientations have not found a footing. Instead, we suggest that the growing but still small niche of urban China research presents tremendous opportunities for generating cross-context dialogues. The potential has not been fully delivered, as yet.

scholarly journals Coping with urbanization in China: The role of the sciences of human settlements and planning practice

2006 ◽  
Vol 73 (436-441) ◽  
pp. 196-206
Author(s):  
Wu Liangyong
Keyword(s):  
Urban Studies ◽  
World Society ◽  
Local Identity ◽  
Human Settlements ◽  
Tsinghua University ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The World ◽  
Urbanization In China ◽  
The University

The author is Professor of Architecture and Urban Studies , Tsinghua University, Beijing, People's Republic of China; member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; and Director of both the Institute of Architectural and Urban Studies and the Center for Human Settlements, Tsinghua University. He is also a member and former President of the World Society for Ekistics (WSE). The text that follows is a slightly edited and revised version of a paper presented at the international symposion on "Globalization and Local Identity," organized jointly by the World Society for Ekistics and the University of Shiga Prefecture in Hikone, Japan, 19-24 September, 2005.

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