Yimin Zhao

I am an Assistant Professor in Urban Planning and Management at Renmin University of China. Trained as a Human Geographer, I have long been interested in spatial politics and urban political economy in China’s urban transformation. After previous investigations on Beijing’s green belts and the Jiehebu area, my current research develops along two lines of inquiry, one focusing on the infrastructural lives of authoritarianism and the other looking into the urban mechanisms of “Global China”.

Education Experience

• 2012.10-2017.10, PhD in Human Geography and Urban Studies, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.
• 2009.09-2011.07, MSc in Urban and Regional Economics, Peking University, Beijing, China
• 2005.09-2009.07, BA in Urban and Regional Management (Yuanpei College), Peking University, Beijing, China

Work Experience

• 2018.09 to present, Assistant Professor, School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China.
• 2017.11-2018.08, Research Associate, Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

Part time Job

• Associate, LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre
• Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)
• Member of the American Association of Geographers
• Member of Urban Affairs Association

Peer reviewer: Asian Geographer, City, Current Issues in Tourism, Environment and Urbanization (Asia), International Development Planning Review, Journal of Urban Management, Land Use Policy, Modern China, Planning Perspectives, Urban Affairs Review, Sociological Studies (社会学研究), Sociological Review of China (社会学评论)

Book reviewer: Economic Geography, Journal of Urban Affairs

Research Expertise

My research focuses on socio-spatial processes of urban change, attending particularly to the role of the state in politico-economic dynamics of urban land and environment. Trained as a Human Geographer, I adopt mixed research methods (urban ethnography in particular) to understand microphysics of power relations and state processes in the everyday life, so as to uncover the logics of urban/environmental politics and their socio-spatial effects.

Keywords: Critical urban theory; Urban political economy; Urban and land politics; Space and power; Urban ethnography

Selected Publications

• 2020. “ Whither progressive urban futures? Critical reflections on the politics of temporality in Asia” (with Hyun Bang Shin and Sin Yee Koh). CITY: Analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2020.1739925 (online first)
• 2019. “Regional Development” (wtih Xingjian Liu). In A. M. Orum (ed.) The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Urban and Regional Studies, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell
• 2018. “Anti-urbanism and the genealogy of China’s control of urban population” (“‘反城市主义’与城市⼈口调控的谱系”). Urban Governance Studies (城市治理研究), Vol. 3, 95-119.
• 2018. “Urbanism as a state project: Lessons from Beijing’s green belts” (with Hyun Bang Shin). In M. Jayne (ed.) Chinese Urbanism: Critical Perspectives. London: Routledge, 30-46
• 2017. “Second-hand space: Unthinking the Quito Papers” (“⼆⼿空间：否思《基多宣⾔》”). Dushu Journal (读书杂志), 2017(12), 3-10.
• 2017. “Space as method: Field sites and encounters in Beijing’s green belts.” CITY: Analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, 21(2), 190-206. DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2017.1353342