Roundtable on Housing and Community Development by Chinese Professors

Four young scholars from Mainland China joined a roundtable session on housing and community development in rapid urbanizing China, moderated by Prof. Lan Deng from the University of Michigan. Prof. Yuan Yuan from Sun Yat-sen University reviewed the planning process of a low-income community (Tongde Street) in Guangzhou, concluding that collaborative planning is an effective strategy with which to address the issues in low-income communities. Prof. Yang Xiao, Tongji University, analyzed the distribution of parks in Shanghai, using the concpet of access to open space in order to explore the social equity issue of disadvantaged communities. Prof. Miao Xu of Chongqing University contrasted habitat culture and policies on real estate taxes between China and western countries, discussing the uniqueness of gated communities in China. Finally, Prof. Lingyun Fan, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, focused on rural planning and investigated the evolution of social space of rural communities in Suzhou during the process of rapid urbanization. He also examined the
and costs and benefits to rural residents’ resulting from involuntary urbanization.

After the presentations, Prof. Den then invited the audience to join the discussion. The four professors and audience discussed a variety of new challenges in housing and community development. Due to their keen interest in the topic, they continued their discussion in the hallway after the roundtable session was official ended. This roundtable offers a platform to introduce new development on housing and community development in China. IACP hopes that roundtables can become a tradition at the ACSP conference so that international audiences can better understand planning issues in China.