Exploring how cities create a sense of belonging

"Because of its rapid urbanization, in China, cities are emerging as a very important part of a person's identity," says Daniel Bell, sitting comfortably in a chair, legs crossed, wearing an oversize suit jacket.

In fact, although people tend to refer to their nationality, he says their strongest sense of belonging is often to a city.

"It means attachment to particular communities," he says.

Bell, from Canada, says this is significant as it can moderate extreme and closed-minded forms of nationalism.

A political science professor, Bell has lived and worked in a number of cities, including Montreal, Oxford, Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and most recently Jinan city in Shandong province, and he is the co-author of the book The Spirit of Cities 2: Inclusion and Identity with his friend Israeli Avner de Shalit, a political science professor from Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Bell and De Shalit met each other at Oxford University in the 1990s. At that time, they found they shared a similar intellectual outlook and forged a close friendship.

Bell is a professor in the Department of Philosophy of the Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University in Beijing and dean of faculty of Political Science and Public Administration at Shandong University in Jinan, where he moved earlier this year.

In the newly released Chinese version of the book, Bell mentions Qufu, the city in Shandong that was hometown of Confucius, as a good example of a city promoting its spirit.

"Qufu, as you probably know, has a very strong Confucian culture," Bell says. "It attracts many visitors, which has helped the local economy grow."

Providing a sense of belonging, promoting economic growth, achieving political goals that are difficult to achieve at the level of the state and tolerance for different cultures are all part of a city's spirit, Bell says.

De Shalit emphasizes that establishing and affirming a city's spirit helps foster tolerance of different cultures within a city.

"Tolerance is very instrumental in essence, and it ensures order, which helps a city prosper," he says.

This is an important issue in China, because of the large floating population.

"Shenzhen is the best example of the country's floating population. Much of the changes that have transformed Shenzhen into the hottest high-tech hub in China have been because of talent migrants from other places. Migrant workers also make it a lively and vibrant place," says Bell.

As Liu Yu, a political science professor from Tsinghua University, points out, the spirit of city emerges from the bottom up.

"Every community, every building, every one of us is the author of the spirit of city," says Liu.

The cooperation between the two authors was very smooth; for most of the chapters, they would spend time together in particular cities.

"We called our research our 'strolling method'. We walked around, got lost and so experienced new things," says Bell.

Both the authors regard the book as only a beginning. What they are hoping to do is to inspire more societal and political discussion about the issue.

"We want to dedicate this book to the Chinese people. The more we learn about the city-based identity in the global age, the better we will know how to deal with the most difficult challenges of the 21st century, especially in China," says Bell.

China Daily