Compte rendu : China’s Urban Century
Douay, Nicolas. [Book review of] François Gipouloux (ed.), China’s Urban Century: Governance, Environment and Socio-Economic Imperatives. China Perspectives [En ligne], 2016, n° 4, p. 92. Mis en ligne le 1er décembre 2016. URL : http://chinaperspectives.revues.org/7148 (consulté le décembre 2016)
François Gipouloux, director of research emeritus at CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research), has carried out numerous studies on geography and territorial development in Asia, especially in China. This work, which he coordinated, builds on a collective study financed by the European Union entitled “UrbaChina: Sustainable Urbanisation in China – Megatrends towards 2050” (Urba China 7e PCRD), which brought together European and Chinese scholars from 11 research institutions for four years. The multidisciplinary research programme considered China’s sustainable urban development, especially focusing on four agglomerations: Shanghai, Chongqing, Kunming, and Huangshan. Its main objective was to analyse the major currents capable of structuring urbanisation in China over the ensuing decades and to create the scenarios around conceptions of sustainable urbanisation.
The book under review considers the processes of Chinese urbanisation, the states and challenges in order to examine the advent of a Chinese society that will be mostly urban from now on. Urbanisation has constituted a visible manifestation of the accelerated economic development unleashed since 1978 through economic reforms and opening. Given its strong effects on the environment, resources, and public health, this urbanisation has posed and will continue to pose serious problems when it comes to sustainable development.
The urban stakes and challenges dealt with in this book are diverse. They concern the institutional foundations of urbanisation, the environmental and social contexts of urban spaces, heritage conservation, and conflict between tradition and modernity in urban lifestyles, as well as the regional and international competitiveness of Chinese metropolises. The analyses rely on national and local statistical data, as well as on interviews carried out during field studies in Shanghai, Chongqing, Kunming, and Huangshan.
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- Fiche de China’s Urban Century sur le site d’Edward Elgar Publishing
- Page personnelle de François Gipouloux
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Monique Abud (29 décembre 2016). Compte rendu : China’s Urban Century. Carnets du Centre Chine (CNRS/EHESS). Consulté le 17 mars 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/mfws


