Center and Periphery in the Age of Planetary Urbanization

Xuefei Ren, Michigan State University

Chinese cities have witnessed a boom of newtown development in recent years. Most research to date has focused on newtowns in the largest cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, or the spectacular ghost towns such as Ordos. This talk discusses a different type of newtown development taking place in China’s rustbelt (i.e., northeast region). In spite of the sluggish economy and declining population, local governments in China's rustbelt cities have launched massive newtown development projects, and some of them have been successful in attracting residents and businesses. In this talk, I examine the logic of newtown development in China’s rust-belt, and use the example of newtowns to rethink existing urban theories, such as the Chicago School, the L.A. School, and planetary urbanization.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 213. Reconceptualizing Urban Keywords from the Global South