The Great Urban Transformation

<br> Stands as a bold and ground-breaking attempt to contest popular beliefs and challenge perceived notions. Hsing is to be congratulated for producing such an important milestone on the journey of scholarly enquiries into the gigantic and profound great urban transformation with a scale no less significant than the one masterfully addressed by Polanyi half of century ago. It is a milestone that sets the beginning of a long journey. --Annals of the Association of American Geographer<p><br> A magisterial study of the territorial competition that ignites this process in core cities like Shanghai, as well as the urban fringes and (most wrenchingly) the rural hinterlands. Reform era decentralization and market restructuring initiated a scramble for authority over profitable redevelopment. Hsing draws on immersive field research-using colorful vignettes of her personal experiences at the beginning of each empirical chapter-and a formidable command of reform-era land laws. --Cities<p><br> [An] excellent guide to understanding the ongoing urban boom in China... Fascinating examples of urban development, mostly from Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, accompany incisive conceptualization and analysis....what comes through is how rapid, complicated, and wrenching China's urban transformation has been. --CHOICE<p><br> This book is a masterful piece of scholarship and meaningful analysis. It is a most innovative contribution to the understanding of the transformation of China. It shows how the politics of land development is at the same time the key source of capital accumulation and class formation, and the trigger of social conflicts that may threaten the new Chinese order. Professor Hsing is one of the leading researchers on the study of capitalism in China, and her new book will change our way of thinking about one of the most important processes that are remaking our world. --Manuel Castells, University Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles<p><br> A pat