Dr David Bray

BA, PhD (Melbourne)
Lecturer
david.bray@arts.usyd.edu.au

I commenced this post at Sydney in January 2005. Prior to Sydney I lectured in Chinese Politics at the East Asia Institute, University of Cambridge, UK (2000-2004) and have previously also taught at Monash, Melbourne and RMIT. My academic training has been primarily in the areas of political and social theory and Chinese language (Mandarin). My doctoral research was on the socialist workunit (danwei) system in China, particularly focussing on its role in the governance of urban China. A book based on this research was published in 2005 (details below). Over the years I have spent more than three years in China, variously at Shandong Teachers’ University, Beijing Language Institute, Beijing University and the Chinese University of Politics and Law. My current research on community governance takes me to China at least once a year.

Broadly speaking my research interests encompass the social and political history of China since 1949 and how wider theories of governance, citizenship and rights relate to China.

• Community governance in contemporary urban China
• Architecture and urban planning in modern China
• The spatial transformation of the Chinese city

2005. Social Space and Governance in Urban China: The Danwei system from origins to reform. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.

• 2nd Year Chinese (Mandarin) (CHNS 2102/2102)
• Individual and Society in Post-Mao China
• Remaking Chinese Society 1949-2000
• Chinese Politics (GOVT 6111) (MA International Studies)

Association of Asian Studies (US), Annual Meeting, Chicago, March 31-April 3 2005; Paper title: ‘Governing social space in urban China: courtyards, workunits and gated communities’.

Political Practice in Modern China, Conference organised by the East Asia Institute, held at Churchill College, Cambridge, June 26-27, 2002. Paper title: ‘Building shequ: towards a new collectivism?’.