The scale question as an urban question: The making of homo urbanicus amid state entrepreneurialism

This research bridges two influential strands of literature on urban China—state entrepreneurialism and homo urbanicus (城市人). By revisiting how China’s post-reform urban transformation has unfolded and connecting it to current development strategies, this research provides a fresh perspective on the country’s urbanization processes and their implications for future governance. The analysis proposes an alternative periodization of three phases: anti-migration urbanism, anti-settlement urbanism, and anti-civitas urbanism. Beyond understanding urbanization as a crisis-driven, state-rescaling phenomenon pivoting around the blending of state and market forces, this research repositions the concept of homo urbanicus, or the urban citizen, as central to understanding the urban question in China’s governance strategies. The study urges scholars to reconsider urbanization not only as a structural transformation but as a transformative redefinition of citizenship critical to understanding China’s ongoing drive to “people-centered urbanzation”.