Urbanizing China: A Reflective Dialogue
China's urbanization gets examined through the tension between state control and market forces, and the ripple effects on land use, housing, transportation, energy, environment, migration, finance, and urban inequality. The course, from MIT, is structured as a discussion seminar rather than a lecture series: students engage directly with the instructor and guest lecturers, bringing their own academic or professional backgrounds into the conversation. Topics include the de-synchronization of China's urbanization from its economic development, how China's future growth might diverge from its past, and what distinguishes Chinese urbanization from patterns seen elsewhere in the world. Materials are available through MIT OpenCourseWare under a Creative Commons license, free to access, with no certificate offered. The format rewards students who bring prior knowledge or lived experience of China, since the class leans on participant contribution rather than passive viewing to build its case.