ABSTRACT
It is surprising that the unprecedented scale and speed of urbanisation in China over the past two decades has not placed theoretical and empirical study of Chinese cities at the heart of contemporary critical urban scholarship. Injecting critical perspectives initially into urban geography, and then proliferating influential thinking about cities across the social sciences David Harvey and those 'metroMarxists' inspired by his work have advanced our understanding of the profound influence of capitalism on urban experience. Empirically, attention has focused on urban and regional growth, land use and housing, the 'urban – rural' divide, physical and infrastructural restructuring, economic development, migration and social change. A number of key texts have been at the vanguard of understanding Chinese urbanism with regard to a diverse range of urban practices and processes such as globalisation and economic reform, spatial and physical transformation. The chapter also presents some concepts discussed in this book.
