26 JAN 2021 (TUE) 09:00-10:00

Governing the Urban in China and India

Via ZOOM

Registration: Interested parties can email to machds@hku.hk and a ZOOM link will be provided

All are welcome!

Speaker:

Professor REN Xuefei Associate Professor, Sociology & Global Urban Studies, Michigan State University

Xuefei Ren is a professor of sociology and global urban studies at Michigan State University. She is a comparative urbanist whose work focuses on urban development, governance, architecture, and the built environment in global perspective. She is the author of Governing the Urban in China and India (Princeton University Press, 2020), Urban China (Polity Press, 2013), and Building Globalization: Transnational Architecture Production in Urban China (University of Chicago Press, 2011). Her recent projects include a comparative study of urban redevelopment in Chicago, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, and Guangzhou, culture-led revitalization in post-industrial Detroit, Harbin, and Turin, and metropolitan responses to Covid-19. She received her MA in urban planning from Tokyo Metropolitan University and PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago.

Abstract:

Urbanization is rapidly overtaking China and India, the two most populous countries in the world. One-sixth of humanity now lives in either a Chinese or Indian city. This transformation has unleashed enormous pressures on land use, housing, and the environment. Despite the stakes, the workings of urban governance in China and India remain obscure and poorly understood. In this talk, Xuefei Ren will present her new book Governing the Urban in China and India: Land Grabs, Slum Clearance, and the War on Air Pollution (Princeton University Press, 2020). The book explores how China and India govern their cities and how their different styles of governance produce inequality and exclusion.

For enquiry, please email to machds@hku.hk

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