The Street Corps of Changsha around 1920

The Changsha Street Corps originated in the local militia during the period of the Taiping Rebellion, and it played an important part in Changsha’s urban social management at the grassroots level. However, the role and influence of the street corps underwent changes during the process of modernization and the building of the modern nation–state. By 1920, although the street corps of Changsha still worked as the agent of the state at the grassroots level, its autonomy had been curtailed, and its social influence weakened. In the new social environment, even the maintenance of neighborhood interests became a challenge for the street corps. This article illustrates the readjustments in geopolitical and industrial relations during the process of urban modernization. It also illustrates how a new form of state power, namely the police, infiltrated the social management system, affected the traditional social structure, and complicated the interaction between modern state and society.     

The Urban “Cultural Nexus of Power”： Intellectual Elites in Shanghai and Beijing, 1900-1937

In the decades before the full-scale war with Japan in 1937, a robust series of institutions connected the bourgeois with intellectuals （which included professionals and journalists, as well as academics） in Shanghai. Collectively, these institutions can be understood as forming an urban ＂cultural nexus of power＂ that allowed non-state actors to effectively control aspects of Shanghai＇s political life. This bourgeois-intellectual alliance was not inevitable; no similar bonds existed between these same two groups in Beijing. It was forged in Shanghai due to the city＇s unique historical position as a Treaty Port and its dynamic economy, which included an extensive structure of private higher education and a market-based publishing industry. Unlike the rural ＂cultural nexus of power＂ originally described by Prasenjit Duara, this urban nexus grew stronger during the political and economic changes of the early twentieth century. War and revolution in the 1930s and 1940s, however, destroyed the connections between the bourgeoisie and the intellectuals, ending the vibrant urban environment they had created.     

Miscellaneous Artifacts From Casselden Place, Melbourne

The miscellaneous artifacts from Casselden Place derive from an urban working-class community in nineteenth-century Melbourne, Australia. They include a broad range of items associated with work, recreation, education, fashion, food consumption, health, and other facets of everyday life. In this paper the miscellaneous assemblage is examined in light of research questions relating to health and hygiene, leisure and work, and access to luxury items amongst the working-class of the mid to late nineteenth century.     

Emerging Chinese Role in Shaping St. Petersburg's Urban Landscape: Interscalar Investment Strategies in the Development of a Residential Megaproject

The paper, by an American geographer, discusses the origin and development of a Chinese-financed residential megaproject (Baltic Pearl) located southwest of St. Petersburg's historical district. Viewing Baltic Pearl as reportedly the largest investment project undertaken outside China by a government-sponsored Chinese consortium, the author places it in the context of state-level Sino-Russian relations and Russian unease over the influx of Chinese migrants and culture. Reflecting the author's extensive field work in St. Petersburg and Shanghai, the focus of the paper is on the way the consortium was forced to adopt interscalar (i.e., both state and municipal/urban) strategies responsive to local conditions, providing a potentially useful precedent and model for Chinese and other investors seeking to penetrate Russia's urban markets.     

城市职能演变的回顾与展望

全球化是当前世界发展的主流,全球化对城市的发展已经产生了深远的影响,一方面生产要素在城市之间的流动加强。另一方面城市主导权力扩大。加剧了城市之间的竞争。由此带来城市产业结构和产业布局的变化,促进了城市化、郊区化、绅士化等的发展。在此背景之下,全球城市在人类社会发展中的职能不断演变。其基本趋势是由生产性职能转向服务性职能。并且这种演变会伴随着全球信息化的发展逐步由多元服务向单一的人居服务发展。本在对全球城市职能演变简单回顾的基础上。根据全球化发展的趋势。探讨了全球化对城市职能演变的影响,并预测未来城市职能的变化趋势。     

Does size of local labour markets affect wage inequality? a rank-size rule of income distribution

The questions addressed in this paper are: (i) does wage inequalityincrease with local population size, and if so, (ii) what arepossible factors behind this increase? In a cross-section analysisof Swedish local labour markets using unique full populationdata, the article shows that urban scale, i.e. size of localpopulation, has significant positive effects on wage inequality.Testing for potential explanations, labour market diversification,human capital, migration, age structure and employment are shownto be significantly associated with inequality. Given theseeffects, the article raises the question of how to understandand incorporate scale effects into models of long-term changein wage inequality.     

Uncontrolled urban housing in interwar Greece: the rise of the city in urban and national politics

The case of urban housing in interwar Greece was unique. After the end of the war in Asia Minor in 1922 almost 1.3 million Greek Orthodox refugees transferred from Turkey to Greece in the first obligatory exchange of populations in world history. Until that time accommodation and property were the privilege of the rich and there was no consideration for public housing as welfare to cater for the needs of low-income people. This paper explores how the impact of uncontrolled housing in the urban centres of interwar Greece led to the emergence of the town in urban and national politics. It will investigate how the uncontrolled housing defined different spatial configurations and reflected various forms of power relations. It will examine how the need for housing of the masses of refugees led to the collapse of the limited infrastructure and had a catalytic effect on town planning. It will also analyse how urban issues were raised on the political agenda and the way that cities produced electoral behaviours that changed the political map of the country.     

自行车普及与近代上海社会

Taking the popularization of bicycles in modern Shanghai as an example, this article discussed the interrelationship between the development of instruments and the users by analyzing the expansion of city space, formation of the city time rhythm, changes in consumption mode of different social classes, and the competition of various transportation tools, etc. The influences on the transformation of social life in Shanghai and other cities of China were also revealed. __________ Translated by Zhou Weiwei from Shilin 史林 (Historical Review), 2007, (1): 103–113     

上海老城厢:一个江南城市的景观演变史及其动力机制

本文以上海老城厢城市景观演变的历史过程为主线,分析了主导这一过程的驱动因素及其相互间的关系。在人为侵占与河浜自然属性的交互作用下,"因浜成路"一直是上海老城厢独具特色的城市扩展方式;19世纪下半叶,传统的环境基础加上西方公共卫生观念的介入,使原来民间层面上的"因浜成路"发展为官方主导下的"填浜筑路",主干河浜消亡的速度骤然加快。这虽然局部改善了老城厢的市容与卫生状况,却对整体的水网生态和后来的城市环境造成了不利影响。这一过程中的内在规律,恰从区域可持续发展的角度,对城市化进程中人与自然间的耦合关系和互动尺度做出了注解,因而具有一定的启发意义。     

试析金代中都路城市群的发展演变及其空间分布特征

:本文以金代中都路地区城市群作为研究对象,对区域城市群的发展演变和空间布局进行了深入的探讨分析。本文认为,金代是北京地区城市发展的重要转折时期,随着金代社会经济的进一步发展,中都路城市群不仅在数量上有所增加,同时,金中都地区政治格局的改变、社会经济的进步以及交通格局的改善也使中都路城市群在地域结构上出现新的变化。在空间布局上,区域城市群呈现出以交通道路为骨架,按照河流流域组团分布的格局。