renxuefe@msu.edu
I'm a comparative urbanist and a professor of sociology at Michigan State Univeresity. My work focuses on urban development, governance, architecture, and the built environment from a global perspective.
I've written several books on Chinese cities. My recent book Governing the Urban in China and India: Land Grabs, Slum Clearance, and the War on Air Pollution (Princeton University Press, 2020) compares urban governance in China and India and discusses its impact on inequality. My previous book, Urban China (Polity Press, 2013), presents a critical review of urban China studies, covering key themes on governance, migration, landscape, cultural industries, and inequality. My first book, Building Globalization: Transnational Architecture Production in Urban China (University of Chicago Press, 2011), discusses how international architectural firms have helped to reshape the landscape of China's aspiring global cities.
I'm embarking on two new projects. The first project examines the impact of Covid-19 on urban governance in Chicago, Toronto, and Johannesburg (collaborating with Roger Keil and Philip Harrison), sponsored by Urban Studies Foundation. A related project examines the role of experts in shaping China's Covid-19 responses, supported by a fellowship from the New School for Social Research. The second project compares culture-led revitalization in post-industrial cities, with Detroit, Harbin, and Turin as case studies.
I'm a Public Intellectual Fellow of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (2021-2023).
BOOKS
2020
2018
2013
2011
ARTICLES
(For download)
Journal Articles (2017-present):
Ren, Xuefei. 2021. “The peripheral turn in global urban studies,” South Asia Interdisciplinary Academic Journal, 26, 1-8.
Ren, Xuefei. 2021. “Suburbs and urban peripheries in a global perspective,” City & Community, 20(1): 38-47.
Garrido, Marco, Xuefei Ren, and Liza Weinstein. 2021. “Toward a Global Urban Sociology: Keywords,” City & Community, 20(1): 4-12.
Ren, Xuefei. 2020. “Historical Preservation in Rustbelt China: The Life and Death of Jihong Bridge,” Journal of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism, 2(2): 1-12.
Ren, Xuefei. 2020. “From a comparative gesture to structured comparison: An analysis of air pollution control in Beijing and Delhi,” Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 13(3): 461-473.
Ren, Xuefei. 2020. “Pandemic and lockdown: A territorial approach to Covid-19 in China, Italy, and the U.S.” Eurasian Geography and Economics, 61(4-5): 423-434.
Ren, Xuefei. 2020. “Slums, favelas, and urban villages: Housing crises in Guangzhou, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro,” Current History, 119 (813): 15-21.
Ren, Xuefei. 2018. “From Chicago to China and India: Studying the city in the 21st century,” Annual Review of Sociology, 44: 497-513.
Ren, Xuefei. 2017. “Aspirational urbanism from Beijing to Rio de Janeiro: Olympic cities in the global South and contradictions,” Journal of Urban Affairs, 39(7): 894-908.
Ren, Xuefei. 2017. “Governing the informal: Housing policies over informal settlements in China, India, and Brazil,” Housing Policy Debate, 28(1): 79-93.
Ren, Xuefei. 2017. “Land acquisition, rural protests, and the local state in China and India,” Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 35(1): 22-38.
Book Chapters (2017-present):
Woodworth, Max, Xuefei Ren, Jesse Rodenbiker, Ettore Santi, Yining Tan, Li Zhang, Yu Zhou. (forthcoming). “Researching China during the Covid-19 pandemic,” Covid-19 and an Emerging World of Ad Hoc Geographies, Stanley D. Brunn and Donna Gilbreath (eds.) Edward Elgar.
Ren, Xuefei. 2021. “The political economy of urban ruins: Redeveloping Shanghai,” in Re-creating Shanghai, Rosemary Wakeman (ed). Springer.
Ren, Xuefei. 2020. “Redeveloping informal settlements in China, India, and Brazil,” in Chinese Cities in the 21st Century, Youqin Huang (ed), p.81-90. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ren, Xuefei. 2020. “Nanjing too, introduction Two,” “Mountain island city,” “Bridge city” in Nanjing Charter, Terreform (ed), p.30, 89, 112. New York: Terreform.
Ren, Xuefei. 2020. “Planning mega-regions in China and India,” in Metropolitan Circles Development and the Future of Urbanization, Wei Shan and Lijun Yang (eds). Singapore: World Scientific Press.
Ren, Xuefei. 2020. “Thousand-mile city,” in Routledge Handbook of Chinese Architecture, Jianfei Zhu, Wei Chen, and Hua Li (eds). London: Routledge.
Ren, Xuefei. 2019. “Robert Park in China: From the Chicago School to urban China studies,” in The City in China: Perspectives on Contemporary Urbanism, Ray Forrest, Julie Ren, and Bart Wissink (eds), p.1-16. Bristol: Policy Press.
Ren, Xuefei. 2019. “Building on quick sand: Infrastructural megaprojects in China,” in Critical Perspectives on Suburban Infrastructure, Pierre Filion (ed), p.301-317. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Ren, Xuefei. 2019. “Cities in developing countries,” in The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies, Anthony Orum (ed), p.1-8. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Ren, Xuefei. 2018. “A genealogy of redevelopment in Chinese cities,” in Urbanization and Urban Governance in China: Issues, Challenges, and Development, Lin Ye (ed), p.93-108. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ren, Xuefei. 2018. “In search of the cosmopolitan Chinese city: Guangzhou’s urban villages,” in Letters to the Leaders of China: Kongjian Yu and the Future of the Chinese City, Michael Sorkin (ed), p.202-211. New York: Terreform.
Ren, Xuefei and Roger Keil. 2018. “From global to globalizing cities,” in The Globalizing Cities Reader, Xuefei Ren and Roger Keil (eds), p.xxiii-xxix. New York: Routledge.
Ren, Xuefei. 2018. “Global city building in China and its discontents,” in The Globalizing Cities Reader, Xuefei Ren and Roger Keil (eds), p.307-312. New York: Routledge.
Ren, Xuefei. 2018. “Governing the informal in globalizing cities: Comparing China, India, and Brazil,” in The Globalizing Cities Reader, Xuefei Ren and Roger Keil (eds), p.459-464. New York: Routledge.
Ren, Xuefei. 2018. “ ‘Green’ as urban spectacle in China,” in Sustainable Cities in Asia, Federico Caprotti and Li Yu (eds), p.77-85. London: Routledge.
Ren, Xuefei. 2017. “Fragile entrepreneurialism: The Mumbai airport slum redevelopment project,” in Entrepreneurial Urbanism in India: The Politics of Spatial Restructuring and Local Contestation, Smitha Kanekanti Chandrashekar (ed), p.157-173. Singapore: Springer.
Ren, Xuefei. 2017. “Biggest infrastructure bubble ever? City and nation building with debt-financed megaprojects in China,” in The Oxford Handbook of Megaproject Management, Bent Flyvbjerg (ed), p.139-153. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ren, Xuefei. 2017. “Cities in China and India: Disjuncture, master-concepts, and comparisons,” in A Research Agenda for Cities, John R. Short (ed), p.195-205. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
Ren, Xuefei. 2017. “Lost in translation: Names, meanings, and development strategies of Beijing’s periphery,” in What’s in a Name? Talking about Urban Peripheries, Richard Harris and Charlotte Vorms (eds), p.316-333. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.