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Full-time Academic Staff: Teaching Staff
Dr Junxi Qian
錢俊希 副教授

Associate Professor
B.Sc (Sun Yat-sen) ; Ph.D. (Edinburgh, UK)
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Junxi is a social and cultural geographer who works at the intersection of geography, urban studies and cultural studies. He holds a BSc in Urban and Regional Planning from Sun Yat- sen University, China (2010), and a PhD in Human Geography from University of Edinburgh, Scotland (2013). Prior to joining the University of Hong Kong, he worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Singapore Management University, Singapore, advised by Prof Lily Kong. Junxi's research interests include place politics, urban public space, modernity, religion, China's ethnic minorities/frontiers, and China's recent urban transformation. Most of his published works partake in one or several of these themes.
Research Interests
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Public Space
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Urban Studies & Urban Theory
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Indigenous People & Indigenous Modernity
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Religion
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Cultural Economic Geography
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Place and Place Politics
Selected Publications
Online First / Forthcoming
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Yu Y, Qian JX (corresponding author). Being mobile in an era of lockdown: Chinese citizens in the U.S. negotiating homo sacer and the state of exception during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social & Cultural Geography (online first)
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Wang K, Qian JX (corresponding author), He SJ. From campaign-style governance to multiple environmentalities: Urban political ecologies of e-waste regulation in Guiyu, China. Urban Geography (online first)
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Qian JX, Zhang H, Liu YJ. Everyday geographies of market transition: Agro-science, socio-technical relations, and the contingencies of market making in peri-urban Lhasa, Tibet. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (online first)
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Lu YH, Qian JX (corresponding author). Social experiments and the praxis of geographical knowledge production: Emerging architectural practices in urban and regional China. Dialogues in Human Geography (online first)
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Qian JX, Yang XH, Tang XQ. Thinking through the everywhereness of borders: Mobile borders, everyday practices, and state logics in Southwest China. Eurasian Geography and Economics (online first)
2023
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He SJ, Qian JX (corresponding author). (2023) Police and politics in aesthetics-based urban governance: Redevelopment and grassroots struggles in Enninglu, Guangzhou, China. Antipode, 55(3), 853-876.
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Qian JX. (2023) Pow Choon-Piew’s contributions to urban China studies. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 44(1), 28-36.
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Qian JX, Wei L. (2023) A prosaic state? Development visions, banal state encounters and indigenous politics in Southwest China. Territory, Politics, Governance, 11(3), 415-433.
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Lu YH, Qian JX (corresponding author). 2023. Rural creativity for community revitalization in Bishan Village, China: The nexus of creative practices, cultural revival, and social resilience. Journal of Rural Studies, 97, 255-268.
2022
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Man E., Palmer D., Qian JX (corresponding author). 2022. The Belt and Road Initiative on Twitter: An Annotated Dataset. Data in Brief, 45, 108711
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Qian JX, Lu YH. 2022. Beyond abstract space: Architectural experiments for dwelling and concrete utopia in urban China. Transactions in Planning and Urban Research, 1(1-2), 152-166.
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Qian JX, Lu YH. 2022. Architecture as social laboratory: Modernity, cultural revival, and architectural experiment in peri-urban China. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 46(5), 729-748.
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Zhang H, Qian JX (corresponding author). 2022. Reconciling essential and socially constructed selves: Han Chinese traveling to Tibet and the making of assemblage self. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 63(2), 180-193.
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Wang, K, Qian, JX (corresponding author), He, SJ. 2022. Global destruction networks and hybrid e-waste economies: Practices and embeddedness in Guiyu, China. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 54(3), 533-553.
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Qian JX, Zhang H. 2022. University Geography in China: History, opportunities and challenges. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 47(1), 28-33.
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Qian, JX. 2022. Towards a perspective of everyday urbanism in researching migrants in urban China. Cities, 120, 103461
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Florence E, Qian JX. 2022. “Make Contributions and Offer Your Youth for Tomorrow's Dream”: The Establishment of the Shenzhen Migrant Workers Museum. In: Franceschini I, Sorace C (eds.), Proletarian China: A Century of Chinese Labour, pp. 598-607. London and New York: Verso Books.
2021
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Qian JX, Lyu ZY, Guo JWG. 2021. Making a grassroots knowledge economy: Cultural economies and communities of practice in the shanzhai electronics industry. Geoforum, 125, 66-77.
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Wei L, Qian JX, Zhu H. 2021. Rethinking indigenous people as tourists: modernity, cosmopolitanism, and the re-invention of indigeneity. Annals of Tourism Research, 89, 103200.
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Wang K, Qian JX, He SJ. 2021. Contested worldings of e-waste environmental justice: non-human agency and e-waste scalvaging in Guiyu, China. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 111(7), 2165-2184.
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Qian JX, An N. 2021. Urban theory between political economy and everyday urbanism: desiring machine and power in a saga of urbanization. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 45(4), 679-695.
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Qian JX, Florence E. 2021. Migrant worker museums in China: public cultures of migrant labor in state and grassroots initiatives. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47(12), 2706-2724
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Zhu, H, Qian JX (co-corresponding author). 2021. New theoretical dialogues on migration in China: Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47(12), 2685-2705
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Qian JX, Ling J, and He SJ. 2021. Making cities and regions in globalizing East Asia. In: Orum A, Ruiz-Tagle J, Haddock V (eds.), Companion to Urban and Regional Studies, pp. 21-42. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.
2020
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Lu YH, Qian JX (corresponding author). (2020) Towards a material approach in rural geography: Architectural experiments in China's rural renaissance and reconstruction movements. Geoforum, 116, 119-129 (IF2018=2.926)
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Wang K, Qian JX, Liu L. (2020) Understanding environmental pollutions of informal e-waste clustering in Global South via multi-scalar regulatory frameworks:a case study of Guiyu town, China. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(8): 2802 (IF2018=2.468)
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Gao Q, Qian JX (corresponding author). (2020) Migrant workers in an era of religious revival: industrial capitalism, labour and Christianity in Shenzhen. The China Quarterly, 214: 62-86 (IF2018=2.236)
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Qian JX. (2020) Geographies of public space: variegated publicness, variegated epistemologies. Progress in Human Geography, 44(1): 77-98 (IF2018=6.576)
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Qian, JX, Wei, L. (2020) Development at the edge of difference: rethinking capital and market relations from Lugu Lake, Southwest China. Antipode, 52(1): 246-269 (IF2018=3.289)
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Zhang H, Qian JX. (2020) This-worldly Buddhism: social media and religiosity in China. In: Gomes C, Woods O, Kong L (eds.), Religion, Hypermobility and Digital Media in Global Asia: Faith, Flows and Fellowship, pp. 95-121. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam Press.
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Qian JX. (2020) Urban citizenship. In: Kobayashi, A (ed.), Ho, ELE (Section Editor), International Encyclopaedia of Human Geography, 2nd Edition, Vol. 14, pp. 33-37. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
2019
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Qian JX, Lu YH. (2019) On the trail of comparative urbanism: square dance and public space in China. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, NS, 44(4): 692-706 (IF2018=3.789)
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Yin D, Qian JX, Zhu H. (2019) Frontier development in the midst of ecological civilization: unravelling the production of maca in Yunnan, China. Geoforum, 106: 144-154 (IF2018=2.926)
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Qian, J. and Tang, X. (2019) “Theorising Small City as Ordinary City: Rethinking Development and Urbanism from China’s Southwest Frontier.” Urban Studies, 56(6): 1215-1233. DOI: 10.1177/0042098018762925 (IF2018=3.272)
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Qian, J. and Guo, J. (2019) “Migrants on Exhibition: The Emergence of Migrant Worker Museums in China as a Neoliberal Experiment on Governance.” Journal of Urban Affairs, 41(3): 305-323. DOI: 10.1080/07352166.2017.1406788 (IF2018=1.115).
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Qian, J. (2019) “Redeeming the Chinese Modernity? Zen Buddhism, Culture-led Development, and Local Governance in Xinxing County, China.” Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 51(1): 187-205. DOI: 10.1177/0308518X16687555 (IF2018=2.459).
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Kong, L. and Qian, J. (2019) “Knowledge Circulation in Urban Geography/ Urban Studies, 1990- 2010: Testing the Discourse of Anglo-American Hegemony through Publication and Citation Patterns.” Urban Studies 56(1): 44-80. DOI: 10.1177/0042098017717205 (IF2018=3.272).
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Qian, J. (2019) “Place Politics.” In Orum, A (ed.), The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Urban and Regional Studies 3: 1479-1483. Oxford and Chichester, UK: Wiley Blackwell.
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Qian, J and He, S. (2019) “The Right to the city: Theoretical Outline and Reflections on Migrants’ Activism in Post-reform Urban China.” In: T Schwanen, R van Kempen (Eds.), Handbook of Urban Geography 396-410. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
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Qian, J. (2019) “Making Urban Public Space amidst Modern Chinese Urbanism.” In: Yep, R, Wang, J & Johnson, T. (eds.), Handbook on Urban Development in China 156-170. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
2018
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Qian, J. (2018) “Re-visioning the Public in Post-reform Urban China: Poetics and Politics in Guangzhou.” Singapore: Springer.
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Quan, G., Qian, J. (Corresponding Author) and Yuan, Z. (2018) “Multi-scaled Secularization or Postsecular Present? Christianity and Migrant Workers in Shenzhen, China.” Cultural Geographies 25(4): 553-570. DOI: 10.1177/1474474018762814 (IF2018=1.736).
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Qian, J. (2018) “The Possibilities of Cosmopolitan Dialogue.” Dialogues in Human Geography 8(2): 138-142. DOI: 10.1177/2043820618780574 (IF2018=3.875).
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Qian J. and Kong L. 2018. “When Secular Universalism Meets Pluralism: Religious Schools and the Politics of School-based Management in Hong Kong.” Annals of the American Association of Geographers 108(3): 794-810. DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2017.1372175 (IF2018=3.037).
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Qian, J. and Kong, L. (2018) “Buddhism Co. Ltd? Epistemology of Religiosity, and the Re-invention of a Buddhist Monastery in Hong Kong.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 36(1): 159-177. DOI: 10.1177/0263775817733268 (IF2018=2.730).
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Wei, L., Qian, J. and Sun, J. (2018) “Self-orientalism, Joke-work and Host-tourist Relations.” Annals of Tourism Research 68: 89-99. DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2017.12.003 (IF2018=5.493).
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Kong, L. and Qian, J. (2018) “Dialogue with Religious Life in Asia.” In: Beaumont, J (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Postsecularity 258-268. London: Routledge.
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Qian, J. (2018) “Towards Critical Urbanism: Urban Public Space in Modern China.” In: M Jayne (Ed.), Chinese urbanism: critical perspectives 17-29. London: Routledge
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Lv, Z. and Qian J. 2018. “A Coffeehouse Neo-tribe in the making: Exploring a Fluid Cultural Public Space in Post-reform Chinese Urbanism.” In: A Hardy et al. (Eds.), Neo-Tribes - Consumption, Leisure and Tourism 51-67. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
2017
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Yuan, Z., Qian, J. and Zhu, H. (2017) “The Xinjiang Class: Multi-ethnic Encounters in an Eastern Coastal City.” China Quarterly 232: 1094-1115. DOI: 10.1017/S0305741017001096 (IF2018=2.236).
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Yin, D., Qian, J. and Zhu, H. (2017) “Living in the “Ghost City”: Media Discourses and the Negotiation of Home in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China.” Sustainability 9(11): 2029. DOI: 10.3390/su9112029 (IF2018=2.592).
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Qian, J. (2017) “Beyond Heteronormativity? Gay Cruising, Closeted Experiences and Self-disciplining Subject in People’s Park, Guangzhou.” Urban Geography 38(5): 771-794. DOI: 10.1080/02723638.2016.1139408 (IF2018=3.567).
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He, S. and Qian, J. (2017) “From an Emerging Market to a Multifaceted Urban Society: Urban China Studies.” Urban Studies 54(4): 827-846. DOI: 10.1177/0042098016675826 (IF2018=3.272).
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Qian, J. and Tang, X. (2017) “Dilemma of Modernity: Interrogating Cross-border Ethnic Identities at China’s Southwest Frontier.” Area 49(1): 52-59. DOI: 10.1111/area.12283 (IF2018=2.133).
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He, S. and Qian, J. (2017) “New Frontiers in Researching Chinese Cities.” In: J Hannigan, G W Richards (Eds.), Handbook of New Urban Studies 462-479. London: Sage.

Awards
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2014
Excellent Research Output Prize, third-tier, awarded by National Tourism Administration, P. R. China
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2016
Excellent Research Prize in Social Sciences, second-tier, awarded by Guangdong Provincial Government
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2017
Excellent Research Output Prize, first-tier, awarded by Urban Geography Specialty Committee, Chinese Geographical Society
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2017
Excellent Research Output Award for Higher Education Institutions, second-tier, awarded by Ministry of Education, P. R. China
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2018
Area Prize for New Research in Geography, awarded by Royal Geographical Society – Institute of British Geographers and Wiley Blackwell
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2018
Wu Chuanjun Award for Excellent Papers in Human and Economic Geography, first-tier, awarded by Chinese Geographical Society
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2022
Gill Memorial Award, awarded by Royal Geographical Society – Institute of British Geographers
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2023
Ashby Prize for the most innovative papers published in 2022, awarded by the journal Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space
Research Grants
As Principal Investigator (PI)
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Envisioning sustainable urban and regional futures in China: socio-technical transitions, experimentations, and everyday negotiations, principal investigator, Seed fund for strategic interdisciplinary research, The University of Hong Kong, HK600,000, 2022-2025
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Urban development at a contested frontier: state, space and urban aptitude in Lhasa, Tibet, Principal Investigator, Hong Kong Research Grants Council – General Research Fund, Project No. 17601021, HK$ 681,829, 2021-2024
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Architecture as social laboratory: Socio-material entanglements and experimental practices amid China’s urban and regional transformation, Principal Investigator, Hui Oi Chow Trust Fund, HK$66,900, 2021-2023
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A social and cultural geographical exploration of Anthropocene: human-land interactions, environmental governance and social experiments, Principal Investigator, National Natural Science Foundation of China, General Scheme, No. 42071171, CN¥ 550,000, 2021-2024 [中国国家自然科学基金面上项目,人类世理论的社会文化地理学探索:人地互动、环境治理与社会实验,55万元人民币,主持人]
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Development as state-building: emerging market relations and economic subjectivities in Lulang, Tibet Autonomous Region, China, Principal Investigator, Seed Fund for Basic Research, The University of Hong Kong, HK$83,200, 2020-2022
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China’s emerging geographies of religion: Market culture and the making of entrepreneurial religion in Mahayana Buddhism, Principal Investigator, Hong Kong Research Grants Council – General Research Fund, Project No. 17604319, HK$ 728,102, 2019-2022
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Cultural mechanisms and spatial processes of local technological innovation: a cultural economic geographical perspective, Principal Investigator, National Natural Science Foundation of China, General Scheme, No. 41871124, CN¥ 575,000, 2019-2022 [中国国家自然科学基金面上项目,本土技术创新的文化机制和空间过程:文化经济地理学的视角,57.5万元人民币,主持人]
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Rural Renaissance and Reconstruction Movement in China: culture-based intervention, post-rurality, planetary urbanization, Principal Investigator, Hui Oi Chow Trust Fund, HK$ 85,000, 2018-2020
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The Shanzhai (Copycat) Phenomenon and Grassroots Innovation in China’s Consumer Electronics Industry: A Cultural Economic Geography Approach, Principal Investigator, Seed fund for basic research, The University of Hong Kong, No. 201703159004, HKD 14,8000, 2017-2019
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Spatial practices and the social construction of public space in the post-reform context: the case of Guangzhou, Principal Investigator, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Young Scholar Scheme, No. 41401139, CN¥230, 000, 2015-2017 [中国国家自然科学基金青年项目,转型期中国城市公共空间的空间实践与社会建构:以广州为例,23万元人民币,主持人]
As Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI)
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Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road. (Co-PI, Collaborative Research Fund (CRF), C7052-18GF, UGC/RGC Hong Kong, Project Coordinator: David Palmer, HK$ 6,252,078, 2019-2022).
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Regional Integration and Development based on the Perspective of Human-place: Social Construction of Nature in Transitional Guangdong. (Co-PI, Collaborative Research Scheme, Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, 2018B030312004, CN¥3,000,000, 2019-2023). [广东省自然科学基金研究团队项目,基于“人-地”视角的区域融合与发展:转型期广东自然的社会建构过程、机制及其效应研究,300万元人民币,团队核心成员]