Yumin Ye-IACP Faculty Highlights

Ye Yumin (叶裕民), Ph.D. in Economics, was the Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Management, Renmin University. She serves as the Deputy Secretary General on the Academic Committee at Renmin University as well as the director of the China Center for Urban Development and Planning.

Prof. Ye received her Bachelor of Science degree in 1983, Master of Economics degree in 1986, and Ph.D. degree in Economics in 2000 from Renmin University. She worked at the Institute of Geography at China Academy of Science between 1996 and 1991 and has been teaching at Renmin University since 1991. In 1994, Prof. Ye was appointed associate professor, and in 2002 she was promoted to full professor.

Professor Ye emphasizes on real-world practice. She has consulted many incites, including Beijing, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Dunhuang, and Nanning. Prof. Ye currently serves as a member on the advisory committee for the China Collegiate School of Urban Planning, an expert for the China Development Bank experts, the Deputy Director and Secretary General for the Urban and Rural Planning and Implementation Academic Committee in the China Urban Planning Society, the vice president of the Beijing Institute of Urban Economics, an expert consultant for the City of Chengdu and the City of Nanning. Prof. Ye won the New Century Excellent Talents Award by Chinese Ministry of Education, Outstanding Teacher in Beijing, one of “Top Ten Teachers” at Renmin University, and other honors.

Professor Ye’s main research interests have been Chinese urbanization and urban-rural development planning in the last 20 years. In her 2000 book “The Road of Chinese Urbanization: Economic Support and Institutional Innovation”, published by Commercial Press, Prof. Ye proposed two main themes of urbanization and industrialization and constructed six supporting systems for urbanization (industrialization, institution and policy, urban development, resources and environment, agriculture and rural areas, technology and talents). The book is one of the most influential publications in the early studies on urbanization. It was cited 136 times by CSSCI papers. Prof. Ye published “Chinese Urbanization and Sustainable Development” in 2007. The book is among the series of 24 books, edited by Yongxiang Lu, a member of China Academy of Science and China Academy of Engineering, President of China Academy of Science. The series of works aims to introduce to the world the concepts, progress, and methods in Chinese sustainable development. Prof. Ye published “Structure and Implementation of Coordinated Urban and Rural Development in China: Observations and Reflections Based on Chengdu Practice”. The book summarizes more than 10 year’s research that tracks the experimental experience of coordinated urban and rural development in Chengdu. The theoretical framework and policy structure have become a basis for some local governments to promote such coordinated development. In 2011, Prof. Ye published “Coordinating urban and rural development in China: learning from Chengdu” with Prof. Richard Legates, a member of IACP. The book is the first works to introduce coordinated urban and rural development in a case study, and it is required by some universities as a mandatory reading. Right now, Prof. Ye is leading a major interdisciplinary research project: Research on Systematic Solutions of Chinese urbanization. It aims to make a breakthrough at the frontier of Chinese new urbanization.

In 2006, Renmin University initiated the effort to develop the Urban and Rural Planning discipline in the field of Public Administration. Professor Ye was appointed as the chair of the Urban Planning and Management Department and founded the first Urban-Rural Development Planning program that focuses on public policy in China. In 2011, China Ministry of Education approved Urban and Rural Development Planning as a secondary disciplinary in the field of Public Administration. As a result, Renmin University established the first Master’s and PhD. Programs of Urban-rural Development and Planning in the field of Public Administration.

Prof. Ye actively promotes collaboration with the IACP. In 2011, Renmin University hosted the fifth annual meeting of the IACA. Prof. Ye led 16 international experts to visit Chengdu and organized the Chengdu meeting of the IACP conference. The meeting initiated “Chengdu Consensus: Coordinated Urban and Rural Development and Planning” and deepened the understanding on Chinese urban-rural development practice. In recent years, Professor Ye and her team have committed to integrate Urban-Rural Planning and Public Administration. They conducted case studies in several different fields and explored urban-rural planning theories from the perspective of public policy. Prof. Ye continues research on coordinated urban-rural development and planning, urban renewal planning, rural planning, industrial and demography planning. She is committed to promote interdisciplinary research on urban and rural planning in the new age.