Striving to make their field more than the sum of its parts, scholars from a spectrum of disciplines gathered at the First National Symposium on Disciplines Related to Urban Studies in Public Administration on March 15 in Beijing to discuss the future of urban studies and its role in China’s development.

 

"Currently, urban studies is confronting many complicated problems," observed Ye Yumin, a professor from the School of Public Administration and Policy at Renmin University of China. A firm believer in interdisciplinary collaboration to research and provide solutions for urban problems, Ye commented that research in the humanities and social sciences has not kept pace with engineering and technology research in addressing challenges in urban development. The humanities and social sciences need to play a major role in urban studies, Ye said.

 

According to Ye, on the biggest problems preventing the field from being more effective is the lack of communication and coordination between different disciplines. Sometime they even draw contradictory conclusions from their research. Restricting policies or the application of research findings to a particular sector while ignoring other areas will have a negative effect on the public. One way or another, long-term public interest will be neglected, he expressed.

 

In addition to general collaboration between disciplines, scholars attending the symposium talked about how to strengthen urban studies with an eye to developing public management. "Disciplines in urban planning and development need to be guided and driven by the interests of the public at large," said Yang Baojun, deputy director of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design.

 

Ye Yumin also stressed the necessity of letting public interest dictate the direction of disciplines related to urban studies in public administration. In his view, urbanization and urban development are an integrated system, and scholars and policymakers should treat them as such, seeking solutions that combine the best of both.

 

In discussing the future of urban studies education, attendees to the symposium noted the importance of exposing students to a range of knowledge areas and strengthening theory. Yao Baojun commented that urban planning and development disciplines "should be focused on social governance and public policy resulting from the practice of new urbanization through the coordination of the key values." 

In order to train qualified professionals, Ye Yumin recommended designing curricula that would give students a complex knowledge structure. Ye asserted that the right theoretical foundation would not only guide public administration according to public interest and provide a system for determining what issues to address, but would create a practical vehicle for public administration theory to serve public interest better.   

 

The Chinese version appeared in the Chinese Social Sciences Today, No. 572, March 17, 2014

  

Translated by Jiang Hong

Revised by Charles Horne