Special issue guest edited by Bettina Gransow (Freie Universität Berlin)

Discussant: Ray Yep (City University of Hong Kong)

Contact: Miriam Yang
cefc@cefc.com.hk / tel: 2876 6910

Speakers:

Bettina Gransow (Associate Professor, Freie Universität Berlin): “Reclaiming the Neighbourhood-Urban redevelopment, citizen activism, and conflicts of recognition in Guangzhou”

Edmund W. Cheng (PhD candidate, London School of Economics; lecturer, Open University of Hong Kong): “Managing Migrant Contestation-Land appropriation, intermediate agency, and regulated space in Shenzhen”

Ryanne Flock (PhD candidate, Freie Universität Berlin): “Panhandling and the Contestation of Public Space in Guangzhou”
Iam-chong Ip (Senior Lecturer, Lingnan University): “Urbanisation, the State, and Community Activism in the Pearl River Delta-The case of a land dispute in Dongguan”

Aurore Merle (Researcher, CEFC; Lecturer, Tsinghua University): “Homeowners of Beijing, Unite! The construction of a collective mobilisation”

Discussant:

Ray Yep is Professor of Politics and Assistant Head of Department of Public Policy, City University of Hong Kong. His research interests cover the topics of colonial governance of Hong Kong, rural development in China and contentious politics. He articles appear in China Quarterly, Pacific Review, Journal of Contemporary China and other leading journals.

From the Editor:

The process of reconfiguration of Chinese cities includes not only a physical restructuring of urban spaces but also a challenge to established configurations of land ownership and control, space-based consumption and entitlements on the part of urban citizens. Thus Chinese cities, and the spaces that constitute them, have become arenas of heightened contestation, from both within and without the city itself. But who exactly is involved in negotiating/contesting the organisation of new urban spaces in China, and how? How do various urban actors imagine the Chinese city of the future and what are their strategies for creating their own urban spaces? What are the perspectives of rapid urbanisation in China – can a broad middle class emerge in the near future as imagined within the concept of the harmonious society? Or will the rural-urban divide give rise to increasingly polarised urban societies? How does agency by rural migrants impact urban spaces?

This special feature will present first-hand research on three different dimensions of contestation and the urban spaces thereby formed, including: 1) contestation from within the city, focussing on permanent urban citizens turned homeowners, on homeowner activism and on urban neighbourhoods under the threat of urban redevelopment; 2) contestation from the margins of urban society, focussing on an influx of rural migrants, the relation of urban villages and the city and negotiations over public spaces between beggars and security personnel; and 3) contestation at the fringes of the city focussing on the placement of infrastructure facilities and environmental activism, and on the decay and reimagination of rural village communities under urbanisation.

Bettina Gransow is Associate Professor of Chinese Studies at the East Asian Institute at Freie Universität Berlin.
Edmund W. Cheng is a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics and a lecturer in political science at the Open University of Hong Kong.
Ryanne Flock is a PhD candidate at Freie Universität Berlin.
Iam-chong Ip is Senior Lecturer of Cultural Studies at Lingnan University. His research interests include urban studies, social movement, contemporary Chinese intellectual history, and neoliberalism in non Western contexts.
Aurore Merle is researcher at CEFC and associate researcher at the Institut d’Asie Orientale, Lyon. She focuses on the history of sociology in China, the forms of association and mobilization of Chinese citizens and the notion of private property and the question of housing in urban China. She is also lecturer at the Sociology Department of Tsinghua University.

ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME!

This seminar will be held in English.
Sebastian Veg, Director of the CEFC, will chair the session.
Snacks and drinks will be served after the seminar.

Audio recording is available on our website. Please click here for more information.