Description: This study offers an innovative overview of the urbanisation of China by focussing on the rural fringe and the centrality of its management in an attempt to ensure more sustainable paths of development. Challenging the current discourse on modernisation in China that focuses solely on the urban rather than the rural, this book provides insights into the current massive urbanisation that is taking place from a different angle. A re-conceptualisation of the rural dimensions of cities in a fast urbanising context equips practitioners, scholars and students with new analytical tools to observe an unprecedented and complex great urban transition.
Review Quotes: 'With so much attention focused on Chinese Mega-cites, this book offers fresh and valuable insights. Indeed, rural China has been washed over by city growth but as this timely book shows, traditional culture remains. For everyone interested in sustainability, cultural conservation and balanced growth, I highly recommended it.' Jeffrey L. Soule, Director, International Programs, American Planning Association, USA 'The past decades have witnessed a rapid urbanisation in China. The changes in the rural fringe of China's cities present the best examples to researchers for investigating the transition of urban-rural fringe in the context of industrialisation, globalisation, political decentralisation, economic reforms and social democratisation. This book is the finest collection of scholarly essays I know on this topic.' Pengjun Zhao, Peking University, China