Space and Society in Contemporary China

The course would examine the dialectic relationship that exist between social and spatial changes processes in contemporary China. The course will be based on the “reading” of various urban spaces using different theoretical perspectives focusing on the processes through which spaces are created, the different usages of space, and the relationship between these spaces and social identities.

The spaces discussed will include: public spaces, urban villages, work unit space, housing communities, gated communities, and art districts. In this way the course will present a complex reading of China’s urban fabric, and will aim to highlight spaces’ historical-political-economic contexts, as well as the challenges these processes put to local urban planners. Examining urban space we will also be able to study urban society diversified components, the different groups, the processes of stratification, as well as the changes which take place in the local social and political institutions