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Re-visioning the Public in Post-reform Urban China

Poetics and Politics in Guangzhou

  • Book
  • © 2018

Overview

Authors:
  1. Junxi Qian

    1. Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

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  • Uses the ideas of public space and urban public to investigate post-reform urban China

  • Significantly expands the relevance of public space to the understanding of urbanism in the Global South

  • Rethinks China’s post-reform urban transformation from the perspective of grassroots practices and fluid processes of identity construction

  • Provides a theoretical intervention into theories on public space in general

  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
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  2. Introduction

    • Junxi Qian
    Pages 1-12

  3. Public Space: Ideals, Predicaments, Practices

    • Junxi Qian
    Pages 13-39

  4. Public Space Beyond the West: Practices of Publicness and the Socio-spatial Entanglement

    • Junxi Qian
    Pages 41-52

  5. Performing the Public Man: Mapping Culture and Identities in China’s Grassroots Leisure Class

    • Junxi Qian
    Pages 53-77

  6. Closeted Heterotopia: Public Space, Gay Sexuality and Self-disciplining Subject in People’s Park

    • Junxi Qian
    Pages 79-105

  7. From Performance to Politics? Constructing Public and Counterpublic in the Singing of Red Songs

    • Junxi Qian
    Pages 107-136

  8. No Right to the Street: Motorcycle Taxi, Discourse Production and the Regulation of Unruly Mobility

    • Junxi Qian
    Pages 137-164

  9. Conclusion: Re-visioning the Public

    • Junxi Qian
    Pages 165-177

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 179-198
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Keywords

About this book

This book offers a theoretical intervention into the normative ideals of public space that are deeply rooted in Western urbanism. It disrupts the binaries of presence/absence, inclusion/exclusion by presenting a series of case studies that vividly convey the complexity and vicissitude of grassroots spatial practices. It engages powerfully with the question of what constitutes the “urban public” in our everyday cities. Moreover, it provides a fresh perspective on the proliferating scholarship on Chinese urbanism in the reform era by seriously considering the ways in which ordinary urban inhabitants respond to and negotiate the impacts of rapid social change and the reshuffling of the systems of values and ideologies. The urban public, therefore, is analyzed as an important field in which identities and cultural differences are formed and performed. This book is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in theories of urban public space in general or urban transformation of post-reform China in particular.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Junxi Qian

About the author

Junxi Qian is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong. He works at the intersection of geography, urban studies and cultural studies. He holds a PhD in Human Geography from University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. His research focuses on urban public space, place identities and place politics in transitional China, the restructuring of urban China, ethnicity and religion. He has published more than 25 articles in international journals. 

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Re-visioning the Public in Post-reform Urban China

  • Book Subtitle: Poetics and Politics in Guangzhou

  • Authors: Junxi Qian

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5990-2

  • Publisher: Springer Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-10-5989-6Published: 09 August 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-981-13-5544-8Published: 01 February 2019

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-10-5990-2Published: 02 August 2017

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XII, 198

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 10 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Human Geography, Cultural Studies, Sociology of Culture

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