The Transition of China's Urban Development: From Plan-Controlled to Market-Led

(Hardback)

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From 1949 to today, China has experienced dramatic changes in its economy and urban development. This book examines these changes and looks at one city, Shenzhen, in detail. The performance and behavior of a fledgling property market in the transitional economy are analyzed in the backdrop of real estate commodification and marketization. Students and researchers in urban geography, urban planning, economics, business, and real estate will find this monograph lucid and original. Two distinctive periods divide the last fifty years of development in China. The period 1949 to 1978 was dominated by central planning. After 1978, however, economic reforms brought a new property market to many of China's cities. The economic surge of this period has transformed these cities and helped create new metropolises. The special economic zone of Shenzhen grew from what was, until 1980, a landscape predominantly made up of rice paddy fields and traditional villages. By 1995, the population of the city grew to more than two and a half million. Two modes of land provision are identified as the main contributors to Shenzhen's urban development process, which is also echoed in other Chinese cities. Incremental urban land reforms are elaborated within a broad framework of institutional change, while marketization has brought many changes to Chinese society. Continued urban reform toward a market economy seems now irreversible.

Reviews

[F]its nicely into the political economy approach to Chinese economic development pioneered by writers like Mark Selden, as well as the sociological approaches of thinkers like Victor Nee and Andrew Walder. It stands out for its willingness to make bold theoretical assertions about the nature of economic development, but only those which are clearly backed up by the statistical evidence. In this sense, the book is both critical as well as responsible from a social scientific point of view....[A]n excellent historical overview of the China's urban development.-Review of Radical Political Economics
There is little doubt that the author of this book has made an important contribution to the growing literature on China's transition or transformation from a centrally planned and controlled economy to a local-led market system....The author did a good job in documenting the process of change involving a very important aspect of urban development.-American Journal of Chinese Studies
"Fits nicely into the political economy approach to Chinese economic development pioneered by writers like Mark Selden, as well as the sociological approaches of thinkers like Victor Nee and Andrew Walder. It stands out for its willingness to make bold theoretical assertions about the nature of economic development, but only those which are clearly backed up by the statistical evidence. In this sense, the book is both critical as well as responsible from a social scientific point of view....An excellent historical overview of the China's urban development."-Review of Radical Political Economics
"There is little doubt that the author of this book has made an important contribution to the growing literature on China's transition or transformation from a centrally planned and controlled economy to a local-led market system....The author did a good job in documenting the process of change involving a very important aspect of urban development."-American Journal of Chinese Studies
"[F]its nicely into the political economy approach to Chinese economic development pioneered by writers like Mark Selden, as well as the sociological approaches of thinkers like Victor Nee and Andrew Walder. It stands out for its willingness to make bold theoretical assertions about the nature of economic development, but only those which are clearly backed up by the statistical evidence. In this sense, the book is both critical as well as responsible from a social scientific point of view....[A]n excellent historical overview of the China's urban development."-Review of Radical Political Economics

Author Bio

JIEMING ZHU is a Lecturer at National University of Singapore./e His research has focused on urban planning and development in the transitional economy, and real estate analysis in high-density East Asian cities.