The Story Lines in Contemporary City Stories

开篇：润墨网以专业的文秘视角，为您筛选了一篇The Story Lines in Contemporary City Stories范文，如需获取更多写作素材，在线客服老师一对一协助。欢迎您的阅读与分享！

In Hollywood blockbuster on city stories, there are usually two endings in conspiracy films on bigwigs creating business empire under the name of development of public municipal affairs: one is brave policeman and beautiful female journalist jointly disclose inside story, so it incurs political scandal and public interest get preserved; the other is that hero fails, journalist is murdered and media keeps silent, bigwigs congratulate each other, while a young lawyer graduated from university just swears to trace the case…… However, city stories taking place in contemporary China are more complex, entangled and confusing than Hollywood blockbuster, and their endings have more unknown openness.

Recently, after reading the book Face up to Contemporary Cities: Problems and Methods written by Chen Yingfang, I find it will meet the problems of subject selection and research methods in the course of researching called city “story line”, because different subjects can provide different solutions. Chen Yingfang, firstly puts forward the problem of separation of “city” and “society" in toady’s city research field in Preface: Take Urban Society as Research Object: What We Research and How to Research? Such problems also exist in city research of sociology, whose research object is “society in city” other than “city as society”. The reason is that it is related to problems within in sociology (such as be wild about construction of model and system). What’s more, due to the lack of independent critical consciousness proposed by in-system scholars for national’s development ideology and utilitarian target of local governments, it caters to the discussion and appeal of power and capital which strive to make social problems of society hollowing out.

This book applies itself to present and seek the “correlation of sociality, spatiality and lasting behind actual prospect of city, various evolution tracks among government housing policy of countries and China and citizens ” and “attempts to find out invisible form of social inequality, all kinds of invisible logic(page 5) of nation, capital and society from relationship between other systems in city(including city space system, education system, industry system and family system) and urban house problem” so as to make “city as society” return to the focus of sociology research. These research results are reasonable development as joint research by authors. Then, may these invisible forms and logic of society inequality be looked as “story line” of city open in China?

Part one “urban development and social justice problem” in this book is the deep analysis for complicated relationship in “story line”. In space story of urban renewal-real record on Seventh Street of Tsuen Wan rebuild project in Hong Kong (written by Deng Yucheng and Wang Jieping), it describes the story that how government and capital joint push forward urban renewal and how parties apply games with rivals to safeguard their interests and finally social life is changed. It further puts forward “we need to cultivate a method of writing space story other than the analysis of conventional model of development in a region (page 41).

Compared to Hong Kong model, there are more complicated interest logic and social political factors in stories of reconstruction of old area in Shanghai. In Logic of Lnterest Relationship and Citizens Action in “Reconstruction of Old Area” ——case in Shanghai(written by Luo Guofen), it describes a course of social events about residents in lower level in old city require the improvement of living space and conditions but may not achieve it, which reveals the responsibility avoiding government in urban renewal and also revises final conclusion opinions about being limited to reactive right protection for citizen right protection in China issued by some city researchers. (Preface: by Chen Yingfang). In Housing Resettlement and Family Ties——Intimate Relationship and Economy Rationality in Disputes of Building Property Rights”(written by Wang Na), it extends research social game to conflict of family ethics and economy rationality, which may be looked as “sub-line” under “story line” controlled by state power and capital.

Another “sub-line” which is neglected easily by researchers is the existence mode of street peddlers in urban story. Society paid more attention to rules of the game of “cat and house” between city management and street peddlers, while in Street peddlers in urban: existing flexible protest out of planning——take street peddlers around E College in shanghai for example (written by Li Jialin), it truly presents the complex relationship among peddlers and shops, city management and residents, further researches conflict and dilemma of “order” and “rights”. Urban society map——research for Osaka(written by Gu Fufu) composed by research team composed of Japanese scholars tells the story of crowd living and distribution in urban space, explores the theory and rules of space form through this “society map”.

It discusses the relationship between urban public policy and housing problem in Part II in this book from comparative perspective of dwelling construction and policy of China Taiwan and France and researches system and frame of housing policy from unique angle of credential society and youth problem, reveals the deep impact of national housing policy on the flow of talent and family ethics.

Finally, part III is the discussion subject on investigation and research methods of urban sociology. In this part, some papers propose various strategies and access aiming to many explicit and invisible obstacles and problems in urban, responds to the theme of “take urban society as research object: what we research and how to research?”. Meanwhile, for some problems such as method comparison of urban investigation and research between western countries and China, cooperation mode in China urban research for scholar at home and abroad, it puts forward reference experience through research of scholars in China and France.

Let’s return to the theme of “story line”. In China, the basic driving force of contemporary urban development originates from “validity” planning of regime and forcible execution force, which is to obtain political bonus and economical benefits through landscape miracles and space order. In Urban Development——Political Sociology of Production of Space published several years ago (written by Chen Yingfang, published by Shanghai Ancient Books Press in April, 2009 ), Chen Yingfang points out two different urban development modes: one is social development mode of taking citizens as subject and targeted at social construction, the other is economic development mode controlled by power and capital and targeted at land/space benefits, while China mode adopts the latter obviously and continues to carry out so far. What Chen Yingfang and her cooperative researchers want to know is the mechanism of this mode’s formation and lasting in China. The author emphasizes the intimate connection between “urban miracles" in China and political power system characterized by concentration of power and force in preface, and analyzes the new features and changes arising from the lasting from various angles. So to speak, the “economic development mode controlled by power and capital and targeted at land/space benefits” is the “story line” of contemporary urban story in China.