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Contesting Urban Space: Development of Chengzhongcun in China’s Transitional Cities

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China in an Era of Transition

Abstract

For social scientists, urban space, which represents a multiplicity of sociomaterial concerns (Gottdiener 1994), is both the geographical site of social action and the social platform for engaging in action. According to Lefebvre (1991), urban space is a “site” for contesting relations of domination and subordination. In the course of economic restructuring and urbanization, urban space is economically and socially (re)constructed by various forces. Although many empirical studies have been devoted to illustrate the powerful influence of globalization, macrolevel economic restructuring, and interaction among government agencies, firms and individuals, in transforming urban space in the Western context (e.g., Davis 1992; Gilbert 1998; Gotham and Brumley 2002; Gotham, Shefner, and Brumley 2001; Hutchison 2000; Logan and Molotch 1987), relatively little has investigated how different social groups produce and contest different meanings, imagery, and interpretations to spaces in the Chinese city.

“Space is fundamental in any form of communal life” and “fundamental in any exercise of power”

—Foucault 1984, 253.

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Authors
  1. Li Zhang
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Reza Hasmath Jennifer Hsu

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© 2009 Reza Hasmath and Jennifer Hsu

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Zhang, L. (2009). Contesting Urban Space: Development of Chengzhongcun in China’s Transitional Cities. In: Hasmath, R., Hsu, J. (eds) China in an Era of Transition. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230620155_7

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