Space Production by Migrants in China’s Urban Villages: The Case of Beijing

As China races towards modernity, its cities are experiencing an unprecedented surge in urbanisation, characterised by a relentless influx of migrants and sprawling expansion into suburban realms. Shiyu Yang draws upon Henri Lefebvre’s influential theoretical framework and applies it to case studies of two urban villages in Beijing to examine how migrants shape the social production of space in these districts. With a wealth of first-hand material from the field, this study provides essential insights into the ongoing processes and social dynamics that resonate with scholars from cross-disciplinary urban studies as well as practitioners in governance and urban planning.

Shiyu Yang, born in 1992, is an assistant professor at the School of Architecture and Design at Beijing Jiaotong University, China. She holds her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from Tsinghua University in China and a PhD from Universität Stuttgart in Germany. Her research and writings span the fields of informality, migration, spatial theory, as well as architectural theory and design.