The Re-Making of Chinese Urban Neighbourhoods: Socio-Spatial Transformation and Access to Public Services
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Social & Political Sciences
Abstract
Concurrent processes of urbanisation, marketisation, industrialisation and service sector development have fundamentally transformed China's cities. This interdisciplinary project focuses on the interplay of spatial and socio-economic transformations and their consequences for people's experiences of urban neighbourhoods and access to public services. It examines how urbanisation together with in-migration and social re-stratification, are remaking urban neighbourhoods and Chinese urban dwellers' day-to-day lives.
The project brings together 16 UK and Chinese specialists in urban development, planning, housing, public policy and China studies. This enables the team to draw on UK and European research on urbanisation, planning, neighbourhoods and deprivation, and public service provision to theoretically and conceptually inform understandings of the processes underway in China and policy recommendations.
The project has four distinct work packages: in Work Package 1 the team will use quantitative data and spatial analytics to identify the precise characteristics of socio-spatial change in three Chinese cities. Work Package 2, which will run alongside Work Package 1, involves analysing land use planning and policies that have guided change in the three cities in the last fifteen years. These findings will then help to inform the selection of neighbourhoods with different social-economic profiles and migrant-local compositions for case study research in Work Package 3. The team will conduct in-depth analysis of residents' experiences of urbanisation, paying particular attention to social stratification and access to jobs, education, health care, and housing. Here we aim to understand how urbanites form and re-form socio-economic networks, access services and negotiate the changing physical landscape to satisfy their daily needs. These findings will in turn allow the team to work towards an integrative analysis in Work Package 4. Here the focus will be on making contributions to both theory and practice. We aim to re-conceptualise 'neighbourhood' and contribute to theory on neighbourhood transformations under urbanisation, industrialisation and de-industrialisation. Just as importantly we also aim to make recommendations that will enable Chinese policy makers and urban planners to better provide public services for all in cities.
The project brings together 16 UK and Chinese specialists in urban development, planning, housing, public policy and China studies. This enables the team to draw on UK and European research on urbanisation, planning, neighbourhoods and deprivation, and public service provision to theoretically and conceptually inform understandings of the processes underway in China and policy recommendations.
The project has four distinct work packages: in Work Package 1 the team will use quantitative data and spatial analytics to identify the precise characteristics of socio-spatial change in three Chinese cities. Work Package 2, which will run alongside Work Package 1, involves analysing land use planning and policies that have guided change in the three cities in the last fifteen years. These findings will then help to inform the selection of neighbourhoods with different social-economic profiles and migrant-local compositions for case study research in Work Package 3. The team will conduct in-depth analysis of residents' experiences of urbanisation, paying particular attention to social stratification and access to jobs, education, health care, and housing. Here we aim to understand how urbanites form and re-form socio-economic networks, access services and negotiate the changing physical landscape to satisfy their daily needs. These findings will in turn allow the team to work towards an integrative analysis in Work Package 4. Here the focus will be on making contributions to both theory and practice. We aim to re-conceptualise 'neighbourhood' and contribute to theory on neighbourhood transformations under urbanisation, industrialisation and de-industrialisation. Just as importantly we also aim to make recommendations that will enable Chinese policy makers and urban planners to better provide public services for all in cities.
Planned Impact
There will be seven groups of non-academic beneficiaries of the research:
Within China:
1. Practitioners and policy-makers in urban planning in China (e.g. Ministry of Housing, Urban and Rural Development; Ministry of Land and Resources, National Development and Reform Commission, where team has strong contacts).
2. City Governments, especially their Urban Planning Bureaux, in Tianjin, Hangzhou and Chengdu, as well as other regional centres in China
3. Urban residents, especially marginalised groups, considering their access to housing and public services.
UK and International Beneficiaries:
4. UK/Scottish Government and EU policy makers working on bilateral projects or engaging more widely with China. These include UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the UK Departments for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and International Development (DfID), which now works closely with the World Bank in China.
5. Companies investing in Chinese markets, especially for property development projects.
6. International organizations actively involved in supporting and evaluating China's urbanisation such as the World Health Organization (WHO), World Bank and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), particularly their Beijing offices; United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and WHO offices in Geneva.
7. NGOs (charities and other third sector organizations) working to find ways to reduce unfairness in access to public services as well as to meet specific needs of marginalised groups, for example of women, in developing countries.
Our research will benefit these users in the following ways:
1. Deepening and transforming understanding by scholars, practitioners and policy makers of patterns of spatial and social transformation in urban China. Our project has the potential to shape urbanisation debates and policies through its insights on the relationships between spatial and social change under urbanisation and to influence the course of international development.
2. Improving information for policy-makers and their domestic and international advisers in their current attempts to achieve the Chinese government's stated goals of providing basic public services for all, and improving access. Our survey evidence on people's experiences of their neighbourhoods and access to services, as well as other socio-economic factors will inform public policy along many dimensions. It may help mobilize political support for improving public services. Survey and qualitative data findings, and the insights gained through their detailed analysis have the capacity to influence policy agendas, change perceptions and attitudes, and influence the way issues are defined and framed and the values which are perceived to be at stake in China's urbanisation.
3. Contributing to understanding of China and Chinese people's experiences by UK government (FCO, BIS, DfID) and EU policy makers, as well as wider civil society.
4. Contribute to the UK economy by enhancing businesses' understanding of China's markets for housing, health, education and other services. The opportunities in China for investment (by UK and EU firms) are growing and our project will produce valuable new information on urban residents' socio-spatial distribution as well as service needs.
5. Helping development NGOs and international governmental organizations active in China and other developing countries to identify strategic priorities in the process of China's urbanisation and understand the context of public service delivery in different types of neighbourhoods.
Within China:
1. Practitioners and policy-makers in urban planning in China (e.g. Ministry of Housing, Urban and Rural Development; Ministry of Land and Resources, National Development and Reform Commission, where team has strong contacts).
2. City Governments, especially their Urban Planning Bureaux, in Tianjin, Hangzhou and Chengdu, as well as other regional centres in China
3. Urban residents, especially marginalised groups, considering their access to housing and public services.
UK and International Beneficiaries:
4. UK/Scottish Government and EU policy makers working on bilateral projects or engaging more widely with China. These include UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the UK Departments for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and International Development (DfID), which now works closely with the World Bank in China.
5. Companies investing in Chinese markets, especially for property development projects.
6. International organizations actively involved in supporting and evaluating China's urbanisation such as the World Health Organization (WHO), World Bank and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), particularly their Beijing offices; United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and WHO offices in Geneva.
7. NGOs (charities and other third sector organizations) working to find ways to reduce unfairness in access to public services as well as to meet specific needs of marginalised groups, for example of women, in developing countries.
Our research will benefit these users in the following ways:
1. Deepening and transforming understanding by scholars, practitioners and policy makers of patterns of spatial and social transformation in urban China. Our project has the potential to shape urbanisation debates and policies through its insights on the relationships between spatial and social change under urbanisation and to influence the course of international development.
2. Improving information for policy-makers and their domestic and international advisers in their current attempts to achieve the Chinese government's stated goals of providing basic public services for all, and improving access. Our survey evidence on people's experiences of their neighbourhoods and access to services, as well as other socio-economic factors will inform public policy along many dimensions. It may help mobilize political support for improving public services. Survey and qualitative data findings, and the insights gained through their detailed analysis have the capacity to influence policy agendas, change perceptions and attitudes, and influence the way issues are defined and framed and the values which are perceived to be at stake in China's urbanisation.
3. Contributing to understanding of China and Chinese people's experiences by UK government (FCO, BIS, DfID) and EU policy makers, as well as wider civil society.
4. Contribute to the UK economy by enhancing businesses' understanding of China's markets for housing, health, education and other services. The opportunities in China for investment (by UK and EU firms) are growing and our project will produce valuable new information on urban residents' socio-spatial distribution as well as service needs.
5. Helping development NGOs and international governmental organizations active in China and other developing countries to identify strategic priorities in the process of China's urbanisation and understand the context of public service delivery in different types of neighbourhoods.
Publications
Chu M.
(2017)
Why economic development in the Northeast are so difficult? a system problem or a structural problem (in Chinese)
in Research on Financial and Economic Issues
Colbert J
(2022)
Driving forces of population change following the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence, New Zealand: A multiscale geographically weighted regression approach
in Population, Space and Place
Duckett J
(2018)
International Influences on Policymaking in China: Network Authoritarianism from Jiang Zemin to Hu Jintao
in The China Quarterly
Gao H.Z.
(2018)
Comparative Study of the Citizens' Participation of Environmental Organizations in China and the United States (in Chinese)
in Journal of Beijing University of Technology (Social Sciences Edition)
Gao X. L.
(2017)
The Reason Why Innovative Enterprises Agglomerate in Urban Area ---Based on a Survey of Agglomeration Willingness of Enterprises and Talents in Beijing (in Chinese)
in Journal of Tianjin University of Commerce
Guo H
(2023)
Grandparental stress, social support, and affective well-being of migrant grandparent caregivers in urban China: an integrated model
in Current Psychology
Guo H
(2021)
Domestic Generative Acts and Life Satisfaction among Supplementary Grandparent Caregivers in Urban China: Mediated by Social Support and Moderated by Hukou Status.
in International journal of environmental research and public health
Guo Y
(2017)
(De-)Activating the growth machine for redevelopment: The case of Liede urban village in Guangzhou
in Urban Studies
He Z.F.
(2017)
Choice of Social Restructuring Approaches under China's transformation (in Chinese)
in Gansu Social Sciences
| Description | This collaborative project examines socio-economic and spatial changes and urban transformation in China; each of our publications (in both English and Chinese) focuses on some particular aspects of urban changes. This summary focus on a few high level key findings. 1) Urban development and planning in China in recent years are influenced largely by three main factors: political leadership, economic sectoral shifts, and land availability. Politicians, especially the municipal CCP Secretary and Mayor, played an important role in the direction of urban development. Each new municipal leader when first arrived tends to start and focus on a new development area/scheme. In Hangzhou (one of our case study cities), for example, this influence is shown very clearly. It started from a small city around the West Lake (the Lake City) in the early 1980s; development firstly moved toward the bank of Qiantang River (becoming a River City), then it expanded across the River to the other bank (cross river development). Each of these changes was led by a new Mayor with a flagship project. Each change of the development focus was also accompanied by an economic sector shift, from a traditional industrial city to a city of science and technology, and from building a new administrative district to providing a host for a major international event (G20). The first few moves were mainly toward the east where open land could be found. The west suburb was initially preserved due to its ecologically sensitive environment; it recently became the new development area for web based economy (a post-industrial development) and home for dream towns - a model for the 'New Style of Urbanisation'. Government led development of large projects often start with a group of iconic and flagship public buildings and associated infrastructures. This was followed/supported and surrounded by commercial residential property developers, which attract house purchasers and property investors into the new area. Similar style of development can be observed in other cities. 2) The general pattern of urban development in cities consists of: a) large scale expansion/sprawl toward the suburban areas led by the government initiatives and commercial developers as discussed above, and b) wide spread and constant local area renewal and changes inside the existing built up areas facilitated by lower tier local government departments and public sector work units. As a result, we can see the contrast between the urban core and its peripheral areas, between the old and new areas at different levels e.g. the level of work unit, urban district and the city. 3) Work units still play a very important role in China's urban transformation. In the past, most work units occupied a single site and the city was covered by a mosaic of all sorts of work units. Through the years, established work units became much larger and complex; they have changed from a single site into multi-sites with networked social, economic and political linkages. For example, office at one place and staff living area at another. The overlap of different work unit networks largely determines the basic land use structure in each city. Expansion of work units (both public and private) also create many land use gaps for commercial developers to fill with various sized housing estates. We see this changing nature of work units (and their associated network distribution in cities) and the emerging pattern of commercial and social housing estates as the two key interrelated analytical frameworks to understanding Chinese cities. 4) At the neighbourhood level, different from that in many other developing countries where planners and developers follow where people go, housing estates in Chinese cities are planned and developed first, people were gradually attracted into these estates through the housing market or arrangement by their work units or the government (for displacement and relocation). It often took many years for these estates to achieve the targeted number of residents and for the government to set up the proper neighbourhood management system. We started the research on residential and neighbourhood differentiation and segregation, and the government's efforts to bring the neighbourhood level management (shequ jianshe and zhili) into the tiered and hierarchical social service and control system. We believe that neighbourhood differentiation and neighbourhood level management should be the two most important areas for urban research in China in the future. 5) Does China's urban transformation offer a unique development model? or is it similar to what have happened in other parts of the world? Researchers theorising about Chinese urbanisation either try to adopt western theories such as neo-liberalism to explain the Chinese situation, or to use the Chinese experience to modify the western theories. These established approaches have limited impact on policy makers and politicians in China. New theories about urban development in China should give more attention to the perceptions from inside, and from the key features of the Chinese culture and values which form the basis of the political and social system. China has changed dramatically since 1949 and particularly since 1978, but Chinese society maintained a lot of distinctive organisation features (e.g. the networked collectives/work units, tiered social organisation and top down decision and control system). Through the research, we recognised that the modification of Chinese tradition (route deeply in Confucianism philosophy) by western/market ideas made China as it is today. We propose that the 'Liberal-Confucianism' theoretical perspectives may offer a better understanding of urban transformation in China. Both quantitative (household survey) and qualitative (interview notes) research data collected for this project are available at UK Data Service. The citation for this study is: Wang, Y., Sun, T., Wu, F., Zhai, L., Li, C., Sun, X., Hu, W., Du, P., Zhang, L., Zheng, F., Liu, J., Wang, Y., Liu, Y., Zong, J., Kintrea, K., Duckett, J., Yao, J., Madgin, R., Miao, J. (2020). The re-making of Chinese urban neighbourhoods: Case studies in Tianjin, Chengdu and Hangzhou 2016-2019. [data collection]. UK Data Service. SN: 854334, http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-854334 |
| Exploitation Route | 1) This collaborative project has a very important impact on research capacity building at Nankai University. Over a three year period, eight academic staff from Nankai spent 12 months each at University of Glasgow. These researchers will continue the work we have started in the project and develop our research ideas further in the years to come. 2) With the support of Nankai University, a urban research laboratory has been established at the School of Government to continue similar research works and graduate training. 3) Nankai team members all have established close working relationship with relevant municipal government departments in the three case study cities. Our research findings will be formally and informally communicated to the policy makers. 4) Our existing and future publications will be accessible to academics and students interested in urban transformation and Chinese cities. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Description | This was a rather large and complicate project involving more than 30 researchers. The two research teams were very enthusiastic on trying innovative research approaches. The team successfully completed all major tasks and activities. The main impacts from the project include: 1) Research capacity building: This large-scale study of social and spatial transformation from the perspectives of urban neighbourhood was new in China. Both UK and China teams benefited from the joint research process and have learnt a lot from each other. In Glasgow, the team involved 4 established researchers, 3 early career researchers and 2 PhD students; in Nankai, the original team expanded from 10 to about 20, most of them were earlier career researchers or PhD students. Apart from the original research team members, the project also involved researchers from other universities (two universities in Chengdu and one research institute and a local university in Hangzhou). We also trained and used a large number of local students to conduct the household interviews. The skills and experiences gained by all these researchers and students will have a lasting impact. 2) Publications: The research team members produced, independently or jointly, many publications. These papers, chapters and books contributed to academic and policy debates in the case study cities and in China in general. 3) Faced with large-scale urban expansion, 'neighbourhood construction and management' (shequ jianshe and zhili) emerged as a new urban governance issue and quickly became a top policy agenda in China. This joint research was very timely and made an important contribution to policy debates and development. The Nankai team members participated frequently in municipal government initiatives on neighbourhood management in these cities. The assistance and support to our project by the Municipal Governments and the local Neighbourhood Committees were good indications of the influence of our project over policy development in these cities. The important of urban neighbourhood and their governance became one of the most important policy issues under the impact of Covid-19 pandemics and hot research topics in both China and other countries. 4) Urban management was also a new subject in universities. Our partner - the Zhou Enlai School of Government at Nankai University, is a leading institution in urban management and governance education. Our leading Co-I - Professor Tao Sun, is closely involved in the national and professional curriculum development. The project and our works not only had a direct influence on urban management teaching in Nankai (most staff members of the related courses were team member of this project), but also a wider impact in the country. 5) This project contributed to several major research funding bids in Nankai. With the support from UK team members, Nankai colleagues won several large national social science research projects, focusing on urban neighbourhood changes and management. They extended/continued the research this project started. UK team members also helped/commented on several other smaller research bids by Nankai colleagues. 6) Based on experience from this project, we developed a bid to the UKRI for a GCRF Centre for Sustainable, Healthy and Learning cities and Neighbourhoods (SHLC). The GCRF project led by University of Glasgow involved seven countries and 9 universities and research institutes including Nankai University. Through the work of SHLC we extended the works of this project to two more cities in China - Chongqing and Datong. It also put the Chinese case into an international research framework. 7) This project contributed to the establishment of a joint Research Institute on Eco Cities, with Nankai University, the Tianjin Eco-City (a partnership new town project between Tianjin Municipal Government and Singapore Government) with University of Glasgow as partners. 8) In July 2018, as part of the impact activities planned for this project (also in combination with another ESRC supported project), we held an international conference on Urban Transformation and 'New Style' Urbanisation in China in Glasgow. The conference attracted over 180 delegates with 140 paper presentations from many countries. About half of the delegates came from China. Five world leading researchers from USA, Hong Kong, Mainland China and UK, presented keynote papers; 10 senior academics attended two round table discussion; most delegates participated in the post conference fieldwork in Central Scotland. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | CSC Scholarship to Dr Limei Zhang to visit Glasgow for 12 months |
| Amount | £15,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Chinese Scholarship Council |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | China |
| Start | 12/2017 |
| End | 12/2018 |
| Description | China Scholarship Council (CSC) Visiting scholarship (6 person, 12 months each) |
| Amount | £90,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Chinese Scholarship Council |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | China |
| Start | 12/2016 |
| End | 12/2017 |
| Description | China Scholarship Council visiting scholarship for Dr Yuan Ke to spend 12 months at University of Glasgow |
| Amount | £15,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Leeds |
| Department | China Scholarship Council |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2018 |
| End | 06/2019 |
| Description | China Social Science Foundation |
| Amount | ¥800,000 (CNY) |
| Funding ID | 15ZDB173 |
| Organisation | University of Leeds |
| Department | China Scholarship Council |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2016 |
| End | 12/2019 |
| Description | GCRF: Growing Research Capacity |
| Amount | £7,100,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ES/P011020/1 |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2017 |
| End | 12/2021 |
| Description | NSSF 2017 Large Project lead by Professor Jiang with Ya Ping Wang as one of the Co-Is (Production, living and eco environment spaces in Chinese cities) |
| Amount | ¥800,000 (CNY) |
| Organisation | National Social Science Foundation |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | China |
| Start | 12/2017 |
| End | 12/2022 |
| Description | RSE-NSFC joint project |
| Amount | £9,800 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2021 |
| End | 05/2023 |
| Description | Tianjin Eco City, Nankai Univesrity and Glasgow Univerity Joint Eco-City Research Institute |
| Amount | ¥2,000,000 (CNY) |
| Organisation | Government of Singapore |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Singapore |
| Start | 01/2018 |
| End | 12/2023 |
| Description | University of Glasgow PhD studentship |
| Amount | £90,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Glasgow |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2016 |
| End | 07/2019 |
| Title | Spatial Data on Neighbourhoods |
| Description | Big Data Approach for Spatial Analysis: According to the original proposal, the first year work was on spatial and planning data collection, aiming to establish the distribution patterns of neighbourhoods in case study cities, and address the question: what kind of neighbourhoods could be found in cities and where do they located? The challenge as we soon realised was that there was no ready made official spatial and socio-economic data available, especially at small neighbourhood/estate (xiaoqu) level. After few months exploring and investigation, we decided to build special spatial and socio-economic database for this study. For spatial GIS data, Nankai colleagues bought GPS maps from a commercial provider for the three case study cities and worked on them, in comparison with Google Map, to identify and mark neighbourhood areas. For socio-economic data at neighbourhood area level, a big data approach was used to capture housing market data from various websites. Both of these exercises were very complicated and labour intensive and Nankai team members spent a lot time and resources. For each city, it involved the identification of over 2000 neighbourhood areas. Spatial Sample Belts: Because the social and economic data captured from the internet does not have all the necessary attributes for neighbourhood analysis, we decided to divide spatial analysis into two levels: at the whole city level we use data captured from the internet; at a more accurate level of analysis, we chosen two 100 metre wide spatial sample belts in each city, intersecting at the city centre. In each city one belt runs east-west and the other one follows each city's main urban development axis. These belts can capture both the urban layout of the cities as well as its growth trajectory. For every neighbourhood located on these belts, we plan to carry out further investigation to collect essential socio-economic data. We have designed a neighbourhood questionnaire to collect these data. These sample belts cover about 100 to 200 neighbourhoods in each city. Both the choose of the belts and the questionnaire design were a collective endeavour that discussed in several team meetings. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Data availability at local neighbourhood level is a main problem in China. Most other researchers carried out analysis at the Jiedao Level (Street Committee, a level of local government which covers a relatively large territory). Our methods allow us to carry out spatial and social analysis at the neighbourhood level. The neighbourhood checking and marking exercise however is very time consuming according to the works we have done in Tianjin. For the other two cities we may need to use a slightly simple methods, including contracting out data supplementation to website data service agencies. |
| Title | Data Base for Neighbourhoods |
| Description | Spatial and social/economic data: The project involves in the collection of following data: 1) GIS maps for neighbourhood areas in Tianjin, based on commercial GPS maps, manually checked with Google Map and Baidu Map. 2) Bought Commercial GPS maps for Chengdu and Hangzhou (with neighbourhood area and other public service attributes) 3) Housing estate database in Excel/SPSS format (estate architecture, design and housing price data), caught/downloaded from property websites for Tianjin, Chengdu and Hangzhou (further validating and checking required before analysis). This task is a very time consuming process. It is mainly carried out By Dr Chenguang Li and Dr Xian Sun. It took much longer than initially anticipated. By the end of 2017, three data files on housing estates in the case study cities were set up. Analysis is now underway to examine the distribution patterns of housing estate/neighbourhoods in these cities. 4) Digital satellite image maps for land uses in the three case study cities. This part of the work is led by Dr Jing Yao from Glasgow. Analysis of the spatial expansion of the three cities have been carried out in 2017. A draft paper reporting the finding has been prepared. A neighbourhood questionnaire is designed to collect more social and economic data for a sample of neighbourhoods in each city, this work was delayed due to funding problem at Nankai. A household survey questionnaire is designed to collect household data in a series of samples of neighbourhoods. The survey work was initially planned for 2017. But the first copy of the questionnaire was thought not good enough to catch the information required. Several major revision were carried out jointly by the UK and China team in early 2017.It was hoped to implement the survey in the late part of 2017. This was delayed by several reasons. Around the time of the Chinese Communist Party's 19th national congress, it was impossible to carry out any large scale social surveys in cities. Local officials found too sensitive to approve and help such work. The household survey have to be push back to 2018. This also need to match the time of student availability we use students as interviewers in the survey. A data base with 5000 households will be available for analysis, about the social divisions and classes in these cities. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Benefited from the large research team and resources, this could be the most comprehensive and relatively large scale data collection and analysis at neighbourhood area level. |
| Title | Street-level database |
| Description | The database contains information for each street unit covering the three cities - Tianjin, Chengdu and Hangzhou. Steet unit is the basic cell of Chinese national census in 2000 and 2010. For each street unit, the socio-demographic features can be linked with GIS spatial data. Targeted analysis can demonstrate the socio-spatial changes in one decade at the city level. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Two journal articles are being prepared based on this database, which will be submitted in 2018. |
| Title | The re-making of Chinese urban neighbourhoods: Case studies in Tianjin, Chengdu and Hangzhou 2016-2019 |
| Description | The dataset include household survey conducted in Tianjin, Chengdu and Hangzhou. The dataset is in SPSS format. Full supporting documents, including the original questionnaire and data collection methodology. There is also a set of qualitative interview notes and records. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The data set have been shared through UK Data Service. The full reference is: Wang, Y., Sun, T., Wu, F., Zhai, L., Li, C., Sun, X., Hu, W., Du, P., Zhang, L., Zheng, F., Liu, J., Wang, Y., Liu, Y., Zong, J., Kintrea, K., Duckett, J., Yao, J., Madgin, R., Miao, J. (2020). The re-making of Chinese urban neighbourhoods: Case studies in Tianjin, Chengdu and Hangzhou 2016-2019. [data collection]. UK Data Service. SN: 854334, http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-854334 |
| URL | https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=854334 |
| Description | Nankai University |
| Organisation | Nankai University |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This is an ESRC-NSFC jointly funded project with both UK and China research teams following the same objectives and working programme. The Nankai funding is provided by the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Nankai team plays a leading role in data collection; while the Glasgow team participates in fieldwork and contributes to detailed research methodology design and implementation. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Glasgow team played a leading role in academic direction and research design. It also helped to coordinate works at Nankai between different groups. |
| Impact | The work in the first year in general is satisfactory. The Glasgow and Nankai teams worked very closely together to implement the proposed research plan. The work in the year started with a whole team meeting from the 4th to the 8th of January 2016 at Nankai University. At this meeting implementation details of the proposed research packages were discussed; joint groups for each package were set up; potential opportunities and challenges were also discussed. The meeting made all team members familiar with the overall research objectives and requirements. The two and half day team meeting was followed by initial fieldworks in Tianjin. Both Nankai and Glasgow team members visited various neighbourhoods and housing estates in the city. Following the meeting, Nankai colleagues started the data collection process, and Glasgow colleagues began the process of international literature gathering and reviewing. During the year, several Glasgow team members visited Tianjin, Chengdu and Hangzhou to conduct fieldwork and also discuss issues emerged at Nankai during the data collection work. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Sichuan University |
| Organisation | Sichuan University |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This is the other local organisation Nankai has contracted to assist with this project in Chengdu. |
| Collaborator Contribution | They will help to make arrangement for fieldworks in the city, make contacts with local relevant government departments for interviews, advise on neighbourhood changes in the city and conduct half of the planned household questionnaire survey (750 households). |
| Impact | Researchers at Sichuan university has helped with our fieldworks in 2016. We also held a joint workshop attended by local planners and officials. They led the visits by the research team to selected neighbourhoods in the city. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | University of Electronic Science and Technology of China |
| Organisation | University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This organisation is one of the local research partners which will assist with data collection in Chengdu. The partnership was set up by the Nankai team in consultation with the Glasgow Team. |
| Collaborator Contribution | UESTC will help make arrangement for fieldworks in Chengdu and will be contracted by Nankai to conduct half of the planned household survey (75o households) in Chengdu according to the research requirement and specifications. |
| Impact | No outputs yet. The final outcome will be the completed questionnaires for the household survey. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | 33 IGU Beijing 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | I attended the 33 IGU at Beijing and presented a paper: Wang Y.P. (2016) China's Urbanisation from Below: A tale of Two Villages. The 33rd International Geographical Congress, Beijing, P. R. China, August 21-25, 2016. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.igc2016.org/dct/page/1 |
| Description | A half-day workshop at Hohai University, Nanjing, China |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 2017 June. "Using PySAL for Spatial Analysis (half day workshop)." Hohai University, China. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | An invited talk at Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | 2017 December. "Design and Development of Open-source Software for Spatial Analysis". Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Science Academy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | An invited talk at Peking University, China |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 2017 June. "Optimisation Problems in Geographically Weighted Regression." School of Government, Peking University, China. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Decentralisation in a Suburbanisation Era? Evidence from the spatial pattern of population growth in Tianjin. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Conference presentation at China's New Urban Agenda Conference- An International Dialogue on Sustainable Development. University of Manchester, 31 October -2 November 2018 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/transformation-of-greater-manchester/ |
| Description | International Forum of "Vertical City for Jing-Jin-Ji" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The unprecedented process of urbanization and urban transformation in China attracts the global attentions. Meanwhile, people are faced with pressures of transportation, housing, employment, education, public health, and residential environment. Hence, this international forum, hosted by Nankai University and Tianjin University on 12-14 October 2016 in Tianjin, invited professional organizations and academic institutions to participate in, including scholars from renowned Chinese Universities (Tsinghua, Peking, Tianjin, and Nankai). Also, some highly-achieved world class leaders in urban planning, architecture, technicians, as well as government officials from Tianjin and Beijing, attended this Forum. The social impact is to promote Vertical City approach as an ideology for China's urban transformation in order to provide residents with affordable housing and comfortable neighborhood. The media coverage is quite comprehensive including China Central Television (CCTV), the New York Times, the Washington Post, Phoenix Satellite TV, Urban Space Design magazine, China News Agengcy, and SINA, PEOPLE website, etc. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://v.ifeng.com/news/society/201611/017c0879-4f89-4dca-a007-04e38074c03b.shtml |
| Description | International Symposium on Land Policy and Housing Market |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | This is a special International Symposium on Land Policy and Housing Market held at The University of Hong Kong from 16-17 May 2016. I was invited to present paper on "Climbing the Urban Housing Ladders under Fast Urbanisation: Migration patterns and housing market dynamics in China". The organiser - Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is editing a book based on the symposium. The paper I presented will be included as a chapter. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Invited Seminar at Khulna University Bangladesh: Urbanisation and Urban Villages in China - A case study of Shenzhen |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Shared research findings with planning and urban studies students and staff who are interested in urban development and urban villages. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Invited Speaker at "Urban Regeneration and Urban Governance Symposium",Beijing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | An individual oral presentation discussing Institutional Practice of Public Participation in Urban Regeneration. The theme of this forum is the New Agenda of Urban Regeneration and Urban Governance for the practical work of improving Beijing's urban space. It broadly included old downtown neighborhoods and new urban blocks improvement. The organizers invited young and middle-aged experts in related fields to discuss advanced experiences, comments on practical work, and new ideas from an international perspective. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited half-day workshop at Hohai University, Nanjing, China |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 2017 June. "Geographically Weighted Regression (half day workshop)." Hohai University, China |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Invited public lecture at Tata Institute of Social Sciences India: Urbanisation and Urban Villages in China - Shenzhen |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Shared research findings on urban villages in Chinese cities with postgraduate students in India. It sparked very interesting questions and discussion. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Invited seminar speaker in Universidad Catolica del Norte |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | around 50 University colleagues, students and professional practitioners attended a half-day seminar I gave in the Department of Applied Economics, Universidad Catolica del Norte, Chine. I spoke about the emerging suburbia neighborhood in Hangzhou, which sparked questions and discussion afterwards. At the moment I am developing a joint research proposal with two colleagues from this department based on my talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Julie Miao's Public Lecture at Southeast Normal University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Miao, J.T. 'The Trials of China's Technoburbia: The case of the Future Sci-tech City Corridor in Hangzhou', invited public lecture in Southeast Normal University, China, 7th November 2018 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Keynote Paper at a Major International Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Ya Ping Wang was invited to give one of the two keynotes papers at the 22nd international conference of European Association for Chinese Studies, 29 August-1 Sept 2018, Glasgow. Title: China's Urban Transformation: A Confucianism Perspective. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://eacs2018.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/programme/keynote-speakers/ |
| Description | Manchester China Workshop Invited Presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Based on this project, I was invited, along with Professor Tao Sun, to make the presentation on 'The changing nature of work units and its impacts to urban development in China' at the workshop on Socio-economic development in China in an international comparative perspective, organised by the China Studies Research Committee, Manchester University 3-4 October, 2017. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Miao J.T public lecture in Renmin University of China |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Miao, J.T. ''Featured town' fever: The anatomy of a concept and its elevation to national policy in China', invited public lecture in Renmin University of China, 29th October 2018 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation at Delft University of Technology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Paper presentation and discussion at the "Conceptualising, Identifying and Analysing Polycentric Urban Regions" workshop. It is one of the series workshop organised by regional studies association research network "(2017-2020) Polycentric Urban Region". My presentation about identifying polycentric configurations in China using location-based data introduced a new method and sparked discussion afterward. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.regionalstudies.org/events/conceptualising-identifying-and-analysing-polycentric-urban-r... |
| Description | Presentation at Glasgow University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Paper presentation and discussion at the "Urban Transformation and New Style Urbanisation in China" International Conference organised by Univerisity of Glasgow. The presentation is about the planning changes in terms of spatial reconstruction in the project case city, Tianjin. It examines the polycentric transition from the perspective of power and rationality relationship attracts a lot of interests. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/events/2018internationalconferenceonchinaurbandevelopm... |
| Description | Presentation at Manchester University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Ya Ping Wang was invited to give a presentation and discussion at the 'China's New Urban Agenda: An International Dialogue on Sustainable Development', international conference organised by University of Manchester, 1 - 2 November 2018. He made two presentations: Paper 1: China's urban transformation: a Liberal-Confucianism perspective Paper 2: A presentation of the research progress and problems for the ESRC-NSFC collaborative project: The Re-Making of Chinese Neighbourhoods Both attracted a lot of interests among the 100+ delegates. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/transformation-of-greater-manchester/ |
| Description | Public Presentations about the Project in China |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | We made two public presentations about the ESRC-NSFC project in China in 2016: 1) A presentation about the ESRC-NSFC project was made at the launch of the Joint Graduate School to show case the collaborative research projects between Nankai and Glasgow Universities. 2) A presentation about the project was made at the International Forum of Public Universities hosted by Nankai University, on 18 Oct 2016. The event was attended by Vice Principals and representatives of universities from Europe, North America and Australia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Public lecture at Nankai University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to give a public lecture on "Global City Futures and China's Urbanisation", on 22 June 2016, in the Zhou Enlai School of Government, Nankai University. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Public presentations about the project in UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | We made two public presentations about the ESRC-NSFC project inside University of Glasgow. 1) At a lunch time research workshop organised by the University for other colleagues in the university to know the Newton Fund (27 January 2016) 2) A project progress seminar to fellow colleagues and postgraduate students in the School of Social and Political Sciences (24 March 2016) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Symposium on Urban Transformation in China at Glasgow |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | This Symposium was attended by team members from both Glasgow and Nankai, invited external speakers who are working on Chinese cities, and postgraduate students at Glasgow University. The one day long Symposium include three Sessions and 9 papers. Details are as below: Session 1: Urbanisation in China: macro-level contexts 1) Guest Speaker: Professor Cecilia Wong, University of Manchester Eco-urbanisation: promoting sustainable development in metropolitan regions of China. (Professor Wong was unable to attend at the last minute because of flood and disruption of train services.) 2) Guest Speaker: Dr Wenjie Wu, Heriot-Watt University The geography of city liveliness: evidence from location-based big data in China. 3) Dr Jing Yao, University of Glasgow, Urban expansion and evolution in Chinese Cities: Tianjing, Chengdu and Hangzhou Session 2: Urban Residential Environment in China 4) Guest Speaker: Dr Yu Chen, University of Sheffield Spatial changes, residential environment and the impacts on subjective well-being. 5) Dr Chenguang Li, Nankai University, Neighbourhood distribution in Chinese city: a case study in Tianjin. 6) Dr Limei Zhang, Nankai University, Research on the evolution of residential space in Tianjin based on master-plan analysis Session 3: Urban Governance and Space Production 7) Dr Lei Zhai, Nankai University, Typological analysis on urban community governing structure: A case study of gym street in Nankai district, Tianjin, China 8) Dr Zhihong Zhang, Nankai University, Community delicate management in the 'new type of urbanisation': a case study of Zhangjiawo in Tianjin's suburb area 9) Weikai Wang, University of Glasgow, The production of urban spaces: a new epistemology and a combined analytical framework. The Symposium ended with a Urban Studies Research Seminar open to public in the university: Urban Transformation and the Re-making of Chinese Urban Neighbourhoods By Professor Tao Sun and Professor Ya Ping Wang |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Taiwan National Chengchi University Presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I was invited by the Department of Land Economics of the National Chengchi University at Taipei to give a seminar on "Climbing the Urban Housing Ladders under Fast Urbanisation". on 5 May 2016. Followed the seminar I conducted some fieldwork on similar housing issues in Taipei and other cities in Taiwan |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | The Evolution of Sustainability in Planning Practice: A case study of Tianjin master plans 1986 to 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Conference oral presentation at the Global Interdisciplinary Conference: Green Cities, Business, Engineering, Architecture, Design, & Technology, ICN-ARTEM Business School, Nancy, 29-31 June 2018 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://greencities.cuttingedgespace.com/ |
| Description | Tianjin Eco-City Forum Invited Key Note Speak |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Tianjin Eco-City Forum was organised by Tianjin Binhai New Areas Government and Nankai University. It was held in October 2016. I was invited to give a key note speak on "Edinburgh: an Eco-City and Sustainable City? Experiences from Scotland" on 21 Oct 2016. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Urban China Conference at UCL |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | About 50 academics and PhD students attended the session with question and discussion at the end. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Urban Transformation in China Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We organised The 2018 International Conference on China Urban Development - Urban Transformation and 'New Style' Urbanisation in China. 9-12 July 2018, University of Glasgow. The events benefited from ESRC support and attracted 180 people, with 140 paper presentations. About half of the papers were presented by researchers from China, the rest were from UK and other part of the world. The conference includes 5 keynote papers, two round table discussions with 10 senior academics, and 25 different sessions around the conference theme. Most delegates attended the post-conference field study trips to Edinburgh, and central rural Scotland. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/events/2018internationalconferenceonchinaurbandevelopm... |
| Description | Urban decentralisation and regional disparity in China- Invited speaker at International Young Scholars Forum, Harbin Institute of Technology, China, December 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The visiting university is thirdly ranked in the subject of urban planning among all Chinese universities. The preliminary research finding demonstrated in this presentation has attracted high attention by many scholars and policy-makers. There has also been a warm discussion afterward that confirms the significance and the depth of progress of our project. Some useful feedback and improvement suggestions have been received. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Workshop at University of Loughborough |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Around 30 academics, professional practitioners, and postgraduate students from European and Asian counties attended the two-day workshop at University of Loughborough. The workshop is one of the series workshop organized by regional studies association research network "(2017-2020) Polycentric Urban Region", with a topic about planning and governance of the polycentric urban region. I gave a presentation about the spatial development and politics of in-between places in Tianjin, China, which sparked questions and discussion afterward. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.regionalstudies.org/events/planning-and-governing-polycentric-urban-regions/ |