Slums: A Life History in Memory

Author: Chen Yingfang, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: "Shantytowns" have always been large-scale and uniquely shaped urban slums in Shanghai's modern history. Before the 1980s, the main residents were lower-class migrants who moved to Shanghai from all parts of the country before the mid-1950s, with a small portion being "local" residents who had been living there originally and scattered newcomers after the mid-1950s. This book is part of the "Modern Urban Society Research Series," which, through extensive research on people and events, elaborates on the living conditions of people in Shanghai's urban slums. The transformation and expansion of urban society are one of the most important and profound aspects of China's current social evolution. How to record, describe, and explain such a process of social change requires the collective efforts of researchers in urban social studies across various disciplines. Since urban social studies encompass various levels, from population ecology and spatial morphology to social structure, social life, social consciousness, and human behavior and psychology, as well as the context of globalization and the transregional and transcultural commonalities of cities as a social type, the challenges of this research lie not only in the need for empirical investigation and interdisciplinary collaboration but also in the necessity for comparative studies at various forms and levels, including international and intercity comparisons.