Projects per year
Personal profile
Personal profile
I obtained my Masters degree in Urban Planning from Harvard GSD and Ph.D (Geography) from the University of California at Berkeley. Before joining the UPD at XJTLU in 2018, I was a postdoctoral fellow and a visiting lecturer at the University of Hong Kong. My research and teaching interrogate the history and theories of urban interventions, urban politics under climate change, and the ongoing urbanisation of Chinas economy, society and culture.I have devoted much of my research endeavour to addressing the question of how aspirations for sustainable urbanism shape state-society relations and create new forms of urban politics. This focus has pervaded my doctoral research at Berkeley, my postdoctoral research at the University of Hong Kong, and my current career at XJTLU, with the latter engaging directly with ongoing debates about urban responses to climate change. My scholarly activities along this line of inquiry have been awarded with competitive research grants and fellowships, and have resulted in publications in top-ranking international peer-reviewed journals including International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. I see these milestones together as a starting point for my long-term research goal of bringing “political ecology” into the study of the contemporary urban processes in the East Asia region. I am currently working on an co-edited book project, tentatively titled Urban Crises and Future Cities, which aims at drawing in new ideas about urban governance responding to perceived global crises such as climate change and infectious disease outbreaks. Another line of scholarly inquiry, which I find myself increasingly drawn into these days, has to do with the question of how the cultural economy and urban (re)developments intersect and co-evolve. What has been prompting me to engage with debates in the geography of cultural economy was the several superb qualitative dissertation fieldworks conducted by XJTLU master’s and PhD students in Chinese cities, which helped me see the intricate connections between the culture industry and the production of new urban places. In this regard, I have published a research journal article (with Hui Wang) in City, Culture and Society, which examined the peculiar relocation of a film festival from the global-looking metropolis of Beijing to the less-developed city of Xining located on the hard-to-reach Tibetan Plateau. I currently serve as the Programme Director for two of the Design Schools postgraduate taught programmes: MSc Urban Planning and MSc Urban Planning (specialisation in Urban Design).(Updated on May 20, 2023)
Experience
Programme Director, MSc Urban Planning, 2021 Spring to present
Programme Director, MSc Urban Planning (Specialisation in Urban Design), 2021 Spring to present
Teaching
CDE401 Theory and Practice of Urban Regeneration
CDE302 Planning Theory
CDE003 Building a City
CDE305 Final Year Project and Dissertation
BVN403 Dissertation (Urban Design)
Courses taught at University of Hong Kong: GEOG7124-Globalization Spatial Economic Transformation in China (PG); GEOG7101-Chinese Economies: Location, Transformation and Integration (PG); GEOG4101-Sustainable Urban Transport Planning (UG)
Couses taught at UC Berkeley: GEOG110-Economic Geography of the Industrial World (UG); POLECON110-Classical Theories of Political Economy (UG); GEOG10-World Regions, Peoples, and States (UG)
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Education/Academic qualification
Ph.D in Geography, University of California at Berkeley (with Designated Emphasis in Global Metropolitan Studies)
Master in Urban Planning, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design
BA in Economics, National Taiwan University
Person Types
- Staff
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 1 Finished
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From Climate Change Mitigation to Adaptation: The Fever of Sponge City Construction in China and Its Implications to Local Environmental Governance
1/09/19 → 31/12/23
Project: Internal Research Project
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Cultural events and the city: The migration of FIRST International Film Festival from Beijing to Xining, China
Wang, H. & Kao, S. Y., Mar 2023, In: City, Culture and Society. 32, 100506.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access4 Citations (Scopus) -
Ecological civilization, anti-incineration activism and the rolling out of ‘compulsory waste-sorting’ programs in Chinese cities
Kao, S., 2023, Handbook on China’s Urban Environmental Governance. Zhang, F. & Wu, F. (eds.). Edward Elgar Publishing, p. 340-353 (HANDBOOKS OF RESEARCH ON CONTEMPORARY CHINA).Research output: Chapter in Book or Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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Beijing Garbage: A City Besieged by Waste, by Stefan Landsberger
Kao, S., 4 Dec 2020, In: Asian Journal of Social Science. 48Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review
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Contesting Eco-Urbanism from Below: The Construction of ‘Zero-Waste Neighborhoods’ in Chinese Cities
Lin, G. C. S. & Kao, S. Y., 1 Jan 2020, In: International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 44, 1, p. 72-89 18 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
21 Citations (Scopus) -
Ghost Cities of China: The Story of Cities without People in the World's Most Populated Country
Kao, S., 2019, In: East Asian Science, Technology and Society. 13, 3, p. 471 473 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review