Gentrification in Chinese cities? Speaking to the context-versus-concept debate in regional terms
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11669596 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Yanpeng Jiang (0000-0002-9220-2376, East China Normal University), Paul Waley (0000-0002-2405-2353, University of Leeds), Yu Feng (0000-0002-3050-8281, Fudan University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Pages | 1-21 |
| Publication date | 2025-11-10 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Urban Geography (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0272-3638 • E-ISSN: 1938-2847 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02723638.2025.2575756 |
| OpenAlex | W4416096986 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 87 |
Taking as its starting point a recent call for greater attention to context in urban research, this article is pitched within the dichotomous dialogue between concept and context. It uses this dialogue as a springboard to the generation of ideas around potential gains from a regional comparative urbanism. The article reviews how gentrification has been applied in China and considers alternatives, highlighting difficulties inherent in attempts to articulate conceptualizations that are not North-centric. It identifies various contextual settings for urban China research, and examines in particular the widespread commercialized restructuring of city-center leisure districts, referring as an illustration to one such network of streets in a provincial Chinese city. Drawing on parallels with cases elsewhere in East Asia, the article argues that many of the constitutive elements of gentrification are present and that the universalizing nature of the concept lends itself to “accessible” engagement. It suggests, however, that observations stemming from grounded work can help create a regional vocabulary that adds contextual depth to higher-order concepts like gentrification, potentially providing a more contextually rich interpretive handle for comparative research. The article concludes by suggesting that the promise for theory-making lies in the debate itself, between contextual embeddedness and conceptual engagement
China · Gentrification · Inequality · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Urban Planning and Governance · Urbanization and City Planning
Introduction
Emerging Chinese Cities
Rule by Aesthetics
Rethinking Informality
Urban Informality
Shanghai Gone
Gentrification or …? Injustice in large-scale residential projects in Hanoi
Population increase and 'new-build gentrification' in central Tokyo
City Networks as Alternative Geographies of Southeast Asia
The possibilities of cosmopolitan dialogue
Two systems in one country
Exemplary Cities in China
From a living city to a World Heritage City
State-sponsored Gentrification Under Market Transition The Case of Shanghai
Property-Led Redevelopment in Post-Reform China
Statecraft at the frontier of capitalism
Why can’t we grasp gentrification? Or
Eastern Europe and the geography of knowledge production
Thinking cities through elsewhere
Configuring growth coalitions among the projects of urban aggrandizement in Kunming, Southwest China
Domicide, social suffering and symbolic violence in contemporary Shanghai, China
Urban renewal without gentrification
Doing comparative urbanism
Japanese Cities in Chinese Perspective
Land expropriation in urbanizing China
Changing the geographies of sub/urban theory
Socio-spatial impacts of property-led redevelopment on China’s urban neighbourhoods
Authenticity as a challenge in the transformation of Beijing's urban heritage
The real estate turn in policy and planning
China’s leading historical and cultural city’
Urban suburbia
Paradox between neoliberal urban redevelopment, heritage conservation, and community needs
Beyond Growth Machine Politics
Spatial Poetics Under Authoritarianism
Introduction
Tokyo-as-World-City
Gentrification effects of China’s urban village renewals
Speaking gentrification in the languages of the Global East
Cities for profit
Is ‘gentrification’ an analytically useful concept for Vietnam? A case study of Hanoi
Planning centrality, market instruments
Economic transition and speculative urbanisation in China
Gentrification and revanchist urbanism in Taipei
Jiaoyufication
Urban entrepreneurialism and the commodification of heritage in China
From urban sprawl to land consolidation in suburban Shanghai under the backdrop of increasing versus decreasing balance policy
The developmental state, speculative urbanisation and the politics of displacement in gentrifying Seoul
Three Waves of State‐led Gentrification in China
Breaking the Iron Triangle
Production and consumption of gentrification aesthetics in Shanghai’s M50
Dancing with the Devil? Gentrification and Urban Struggles in, through and against the State in Nanjing, China
When guesthouse meets home
Building SoHo in Shenzhen
Remaking urban village through culture
Postrecession Gentrification in New York City
The Evolution of Urban Regime Theory
State Dominance in Urban Redevelopment
The Right to Envision the City? The Emerging Vision Conflicts in Redeveloping Historic Nanjing, China
Heritage as Improvement
Actually Existing Geopolitics of Urban Knowledge Production. Questioning the 'From Anywhere' of Urban Theorising
Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Gentrification
Phantom Regions With Penumbral Borders
Urban restructuring in China's emerging market economy
Family or Money? The False Dilemma in Property Dispossession in Shanghai
The state project of crisis management
Accounts from behind the Curtain
Strategies for Comparative Urbanism
Who Builds Cities in China? How Urban Investment and Development Companies Have Transformed Shanghai
Reinterpreting the Meaning of the 'Singapore Model
Contextual Urban Theory and the 'Appeal' of Gentrification
Gentrifying China's Urbanization? Why Culture and Capital Aren't Enough
Comparative Urbanism
Gentrification inHongKong? Epistemology vs. Ontology
New-Build 'Gentrification' and London's Riverside Renaissance
Rethinking Social Power and the Right to the City Amidst China's Emerging Urbanism
Unleashing speculative urbanism
Constructing a new private order
Building a Harmonious Society through Greening
Gentrification and Its Variegated Emplacements
Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics
Beneath the Appearance of Gentrification
Urban Developmentalism in East Asia
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |