ABSTRACT
More than thirty years after the “(改革开放)” reform and opening up, government-initiated urbanization has greatly transformed all social spaces across China. Although “Cities” in China are constituted at different levels (metropolises, middle-tier and small cities), urbanization has created a new kind of monstrous social fact controlling every aspect of daily life. Since the operation of modern cities is usually not only based on the imagination of developers, but is also unequivocally located in the central role urbanization plays in Chinese economic policy, the way in which we view and understand cities in China determines how we understand possible modes of participation for citizens.
