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The State of the Field of Urban China

A Critical Multidisciplinary Overview of the Literature

Department of Geography and Planning, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, USA

The field of urban China has experienced rapid growth since the mid-1970s. In this special issue, the status of the field is reviewed through the disciplinary lenses of history, geography, anthropology, sociology, political science, and urban planning. These disciplines have contributed to the bulk of the literature on urban China, covering a wide range of subjects. It is suggested that more interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches are needed and that transdisciplinarity can produce new knowledge capable of providing a more comprehensive picture of the Chinese city. The pitfalls and values of using the generic term "the Chinese city" are elucidated. The field would benefit by looking at the research on cities in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe, and there is a need for the construction of conceptual and theoretical frameworks based on China’s urban experience that are suitable for the explanation of China’s urban problems.

Key Words: urban China • social sciences • history • literature review • transdisciplinarity • theory

China Information, Vol. 20, No. 3, 363-389 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0920203X06070031


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