Constructing Utopias

Amid its groundbreaking political reforms and "largest mass migration ever seen in human history," China created over 3,800 new towns to accommodate its burgeoning urban population and sustain economic growth. Constructing Utopias examines four decades of Chinese urbanization, focusing on a series of "model new towns" that showcase innovative planning, design, technologies, policies, and China's broader vision for a modern urban nation. These case studies highlight fundamental issues in new town development including economic vitality, cultural identity, environmental sustainability, and socio-spatial dynamics, and illuminate the complex interplay between space production and social transformation within the context of neoliberalism and globalization.