Comparing the social structure in Beijing and London: Towards a more equal, cosmopolitan landscape of urban theories
<p>The purpose of this thesis is to help reconfigure the landscape of urban theories to become more equal, cosmopolitan, and closer to that of the real urban world. Conceptually, this thesis criticises the Western-centred production of urban knowledge, suggests a new step to decentre this prod...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2021
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| _version_ | 1826279373179715584 |
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| author | Shi, Q |
| author2 | Dorling, D |
| author_facet | Dorling, D Shi, Q |
| author_sort | Shi, Q |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>The purpose of this thesis is to help reconfigure the landscape of urban theories to become more equal, cosmopolitan, and closer to that of the real urban world. Conceptually, this thesis criticises the Western-centred production of urban knowledge, suggests a new step to decentre this production, and highlights the comparative gesture that can be used to support this step. Empirically, this thesis puts this new step into practice. It compared Beijing and London, via the quantitative analysis of secondary data, in terms of the demographic compositions of the labour force, earnings inequality, and socio-spatial inequality, with each comparison confronting a conventional idea in urban research.</p>
<p>The step proposed in this thesis to interrupt the Western-centred knowledge production is that: imagined geographic divisions should be unlearned, places kept apart by these divides should be drawn into conversation, and the resulted conversation should be used to help urban theories achieve a more pluralistic universalism. The underpinning idea is that: urban research should preserve a sense of worldly curiosity, urban theories should be subject to constant remaking, and a world of cities should no longer be as crudely analytically divided as before. To take this step, comparative methods are suggested to be reformatted: comparisons should be rethought of as a way of thinking, be made across cities kept apart by the imagined geographic divides, and be used to reconstruct existing concepts.</p>
<p>Beijing and London, two cities kept apart so often today by these divides, were compared. Results show that urban life in the two cities is subject to the dialectics of global-local dynamics, and that the demography of the labour force of the two cities both resonates to, and differs from, each other. I confront the idea that cities across the geographic divides are too different to be compared. In addition, contrary to what is conventionally believed, the two cities did not follow a similar path to deal with inequalities, and their levels of inequalities changed differently. These results confirm how limited much of our existing urban knowledge is, and how great the potential of a wider set of urban comparisons could be in renewing them.</p>
<p>It is hoped that this thesis can encourage more research in this area, and provide future researchers with some additional conceptual and analytical tools to engage with the project of decolonising urban knowledge. </p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:57:44Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:74d3f5d9-4e5c-4f38-8247-02c708f4b69d |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:57:44Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:74d3f5d9-4e5c-4f38-8247-02c708f4b69d2022-03-26T20:05:32ZComparing the social structure in Beijing and London: Towards a more equal, cosmopolitan landscape of urban theoriesThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:74d3f5d9-4e5c-4f38-8247-02c708f4b69dSociology, Urban--Case studiesGeographyEnglishHyrax Deposit2021Shi, QDorling, DMessina, J<p>The purpose of this thesis is to help reconfigure the landscape of urban theories to become more equal, cosmopolitan, and closer to that of the real urban world. Conceptually, this thesis criticises the Western-centred production of urban knowledge, suggests a new step to decentre this production, and highlights the comparative gesture that can be used to support this step. Empirically, this thesis puts this new step into practice. It compared Beijing and London, via the quantitative analysis of secondary data, in terms of the demographic compositions of the labour force, earnings inequality, and socio-spatial inequality, with each comparison confronting a conventional idea in urban research.</p> <p>The step proposed in this thesis to interrupt the Western-centred knowledge production is that: imagined geographic divisions should be unlearned, places kept apart by these divides should be drawn into conversation, and the resulted conversation should be used to help urban theories achieve a more pluralistic universalism. The underpinning idea is that: urban research should preserve a sense of worldly curiosity, urban theories should be subject to constant remaking, and a world of cities should no longer be as crudely analytically divided as before. To take this step, comparative methods are suggested to be reformatted: comparisons should be rethought of as a way of thinking, be made across cities kept apart by the imagined geographic divides, and be used to reconstruct existing concepts.</p> <p>Beijing and London, two cities kept apart so often today by these divides, were compared. Results show that urban life in the two cities is subject to the dialectics of global-local dynamics, and that the demography of the labour force of the two cities both resonates to, and differs from, each other. I confront the idea that cities across the geographic divides are too different to be compared. In addition, contrary to what is conventionally believed, the two cities did not follow a similar path to deal with inequalities, and their levels of inequalities changed differently. These results confirm how limited much of our existing urban knowledge is, and how great the potential of a wider set of urban comparisons could be in renewing them.</p> <p>It is hoped that this thesis can encourage more research in this area, and provide future researchers with some additional conceptual and analytical tools to engage with the project of decolonising urban knowledge. </p> |
| spellingShingle | Sociology, Urban--Case studies Geography Shi, Q Comparing the social structure in Beijing and London: Towards a more equal, cosmopolitan landscape of urban theories |
| title | Comparing the social structure in Beijing and London: Towards a more equal, cosmopolitan landscape of urban theories |
| title_full | Comparing the social structure in Beijing and London: Towards a more equal, cosmopolitan landscape of urban theories |
| title_fullStr | Comparing the social structure in Beijing and London: Towards a more equal, cosmopolitan landscape of urban theories |
| title_full_unstemmed | Comparing the social structure in Beijing and London: Towards a more equal, cosmopolitan landscape of urban theories |
| title_short | Comparing the social structure in Beijing and London: Towards a more equal, cosmopolitan landscape of urban theories |
| title_sort | comparing the social structure in beijing and london towards a more equal cosmopolitan landscape of urban theories |
| topic | Sociology, Urban--Case studies Geography |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT shiq comparingthesocialstructureinbeijingandlondontowardsamoreequalcosmopolitanlandscapeofurbantheories |