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© 2016 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis. Chinese cities are emerging in multiple senses: They have created new physical spaces to accommodate the fast urbanization of the country but have also developed new properties and characteristics along with urban transformation. The novelty created by emerging cities in China is not easily covered by Western urban theory. This article examines the dynamism of Chinese urban transformation, especially political economic changes vis-à-vis so-called neoliberalism, and spatial outcomes as diverse and contrasting spaces of formality and informality. Finally, this article speculates on implications for global urban studies.

The paper assesses how housing commodification in China has been used to cope with the impact of financial crises and open up new opportunities to boost economic growth. In particular, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the injection of capital has led to a new housing market cycle. We explain the major housing market cycles after 1978 and suggest an underlying linkage with macroeconomic measures aimed at making housing a more 'liquid' asset and richer households increasingly using second homes as an investment strategy. Further, the Chinese form of development regime is examined, revealing the role of local government in promoting housing markets, on the one hand, and the concern of central government with property bubbles and financial risks - leading to the adaptation of a more regulated approach to restrict housing sales - on the other. We argue that housing market cycles should be understood by seeing how property development is at the centre of urban development in China. © 2014 © 2014 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis.

In this paper the urban process in the face of China's transition to a market economy is examined from the perspective of political economy. Before economic reform, China operated a centrally planned economy. Production activities were organized on the basis of sectoral departments of the central government, and the reproduction of labour was carried out through self-contained development. The dominance of the state stemmed from its role in resource allocation. Economic reform, launched in 1978, introduced market mechanisms to urban processes in China. Through fiscal, housing, and land reforms decisionmaking was decentralized. Under so-called 'comprehensive development', municipalities are now required to organize urban development. The state has lost its dominant status in budgetary investment. Self-raised, extrabudgetary funds increased rapidly. Work units still extract surplus value efficiently but have had to become the major purchasers in housing markets because workers in the public sector cannot afford housing. The persistence of state ownership in the mode of production makes it unlikely that market forces will play a leading role in urban development in China.

This study offers a detailed analysis of an under‐researched social problem of in‐situ marginalisation and its causes by drawing on the concept of state entrepreneurialism. Our empirical data stem from the Lingang mega project in Shanghai and one of its neighbourhoods named Neighbourhood No.57 where we find that the residents have not been relocated but are instead suffering from declining public services and environmental quality from surrounding industrial developments. The root cause of this problem is the municipal government's prioritisation of its strategic objectives of economic development over the livelihood of local residents. The strategic vision of the municipality has led to mass relocation in its early phases of development but in its later stages leaves many residents waiting for relocation whilst being gradually surrounded by industrial developments. Despite continued residential complaints and petitions, in‐situ marginalisation is not resolved due to the institutional arrangement of Lingang, which has centralised planning and financing powers to newly created project‐oriented state organisation. Social responsibilities have been relegated to lower‐tiered governments in Lingang which have neither planning power nor the financial resources to resolve the problems of residents. By examining the case of Lingang, this paper provides a different analytical framework for explaining the social problems emerging from China's mega urban developments.

Drawing attention to the governing role of capital accumulation and its interaction with the state, this study examines the dynamics of the new wave of suburbanization in China, which is characterized by the development of new towns. New towns essentially function as a spatial fix in China's contemporary accumulation regime. Rather than resulting from capital switching from the primary to the secondary circuits, new towns help to collect funds for the leverage of industrial capital and thus simultaneously sustain both circuits. Meanwhile, the development of new towns is also a process of territorial development, in which municipal governments expand the space of accumulation under strengthened fiscal and land controls and develop a metropolitan structure. Underlying the specific form and dynamics, however, is the worldwide trend of capital switching from declining manufacturing industries in developed countries to the new investment frontier in developing countries.

China's informal settlements - villages inside urbanized areas - are often characterized by local governments as dirty, chaotic, and dangerous places. This negative discourse inevitably leads to recommendations for demolition. A number of criteria have been invoked in state decisions regarding the demolition of informal settlements; however, rarely are these places evaluated from the residents perspective. This paper, following a long tradition of residential satisfaction research in Western nations, uses a household survey to examine this topic in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. We find that local contexts not only matter, but may be the principal determinants of residential satisfaction. The residential satisfaction of village dwellers is not necessarily low, and most socioeconomic attributes are not statistically significant determinants of resident satisfaction. Migrants and low-income groups are not less satisfied than nonmigrants or middle-range income earners; the most important determinant is social attachment within the community. The perception of being excluded, or lacking neighborhood social attachment, significantly reduces residential satisfaction. No facilities can compensate for this negative exclusion factor. We conclude that demolishing informal settlements does not help to build a "harmonious society," which is the purported goal of such programs. Removing the social and institutional barriers for migrant integration into the city is likely the most effective way to enhance residential satisfaction and neighborhood quality. © 2013 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis.

This note proves that the convolution of an α‐unimodal discrete distribution with a β‐unimodal discrete distribution is (α+β)‐unimodal whenever (α+β)≥1. This is the discrete analogue of the fundamental result on generalized unimodality given by Olshen and Savage (1970).

Dairy products are an important source of high-quality animal proteins in developing countries, and increased consumption of these products by pregnant women and young children is advocated to reduce malnutrition and child stunting. However, the nutritional benefits of dairy products can be compromised by the presence of contaminants causing foodborne disease. These food safety risks are increased by frequent consumption of raw or inadequately heated dairy products. The World Health Organization published estimates of the global burden of foodborne disease in 2015, and attribution of this disease burden to specific food groups in 2017. It is estimated that each year, 600 million people fall ill because of foodborne disease, resulting in 435,000 deaths and a disease burden of 33 million Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs; equivalent to one healthy life year lost). Of this burden, 38% is attributed to animal-source foods (ASF), with 12% of the burden of ASF attributed to dairy products. The average global burden of dairy products is 20 DALYs per 100,000 population. The major contaminants in dairy are Mycobacterium bovis (9 DALYs/100,000, highest burden in Africa), Campylobacter spp. (4 DALYs/100,000, highest burden in Eastern Mediterranean), nontyphoidal Salmonella enterica (4 DALYs/100,000, highest burden in Africa) and Brucella spp. (1 DALY/100,000, highest burden in Eastern Mediterranean). The burdens of Cryptosporidium spp., Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli and Toxoplasma gondii are low (<1 DALY/100,000). Proper heating of dairy products would be effective in reducing these burdens substantially. The burden of chemical contaminants is less well documented. Adulteration is a potential problem, as illustrated by the melamine contamination incident in Chinese infant formula. Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is frequently observed in milk in concentrations higher than maximum tolerable limits in the USA and Europe. AFM1, which cannot be destroyed by heating milk, is a metabolite of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) - a mycotoxin (fungal toxin) frequently found in corn, nuts, and the feed of dairy animals. However, the carcinogenic potential of AFM1 is significantly lower than that of AFB1, which is a known human liver carcinogen. The risk of liver cancer from current exposure levels to AFM1 is likely to be extremely low. There is limited evidence of an association between AFM1 and stunting, which requires further study. Dioxins cause a high disease burden specifically in Southeast Asia (14 DALYs/100,000); and several metals (lead, arsenic, methylmercury) each cause a global burden of 20-70 DALYs per 100,000. The contribution of dairy products to human exposure to these chemicals is unknown. ; United States Agency for International Development ; World Bank ; Government of Japan ; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ; United States Food and Drug Administration ; United States Department of Agriculture ; World Health Organization