Homepage Werner Breitung

Mi pardonpetas ke mi ankoraŭ ne ĝisdatigis la ekzistajn paĝojn en Esperanto kaj en la Germana. Mi laboras pri tio, sed portempe mi direktis vin al la aktuala paĝo en la Angla. Baldaŭ mi finos traduki ĝin ankaŭ al la aliaj du lingvoj.

Biography

Education: StR in Geography and Mathematics from Free University of Berlin (equivalent to Bachelor and Master level, and two-phase German teacher education), First thesis (1989): "Transformation of Berlin's 19th century suburbs". Second thesis (1993): "Economic change in the environs of Berlin - the example of the industrial area of Teltow".
Career: Teaching at high schools in Berlin and Hong Kong (1993-1997). Research Associate and Doctoral Candidate at the Department of Geography at University of Basel (1998-2000), Doctoral thesis: "Hong Kong and the integration process. Spatial patterns and planning concepts" (degree conferred in Feb. 2001).
2001-2004: Lecturer at the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities (FSH) at University of Macau and temp. Assistant Professor at the Department of Geography at University of Hong Kong.
2004-2013: Associate Professor (2004-2010) and Full Professor (after 2010) at the School of Geography and Planning of Sun Yatsen University in Guangzhou (China).
2013-2016: Associate Professor/Professor at the Department of Urban Planning and Design of Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou (China).
2016-2019: Visiting Professor at the David Lam Institute of East-West Studies of Hong Kong Baptist University

Research interests

My main research focus is the relationship between cities and borders. Most of my studies are on China (incl. Hong Kong and Macau), with frequent reference also to Europe. The broader scope of my research spans the following themes:
Cities: Fragmented cities and intra-urban borders, gated communities and housing inequalities, migrants and urban space, concepts of home and sense of place, cultural clusters, urban planning, governance and urbanisation in China
Borders: Border cities and borders within cities, border regions, cross-border mobility, borders and identities, cross-border governance and planning, changing border regimes
Tourism and landscapes: Tourism planning and development in China, cross-border tourism, heritage and cultural tourism, cycling tourism, landscapes as tourism resource, multisensory landscape perception

Research projects

Major projects (national level, over 50,000 EUR)

Place-making and cross-border communities in Shenzhen and Hong Kong
National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) General Programme, 2012-2017
   * A changing border regime as a social and cultural process
   * Multiple senses of place, senses of home and identities in a border region in transition
   * Cross-border mobility and the social construction of sense of place
   * Shenzhen and Hong Kong as migrant cities and as border cities
   * Components and factors contributing to sense(s) of home in these two cities

Differentiated governance in the Pearl River Delta: Fragmentation and flexibility
German Research Foundation (DFG) Priority Programme 'Megacities' (SPP 1233), 2011-2016
   * Governability of Guangzhou and the Pearl River Delta as dynamic and socially diverse mega city region
   * Spatially differentiated governance (see projects below) as source of fragmentation and/or flexibility
   * The role of boundaries and bounding in the governance of the Pearl River Delta region
   * Informal processes as elements of flexible and spatially fragmented urban governance
   * Debordering and rebordering practices in intraurban borderlands of gated communities and urbanised villages

Governability, borders and urban citizenship in the Pearl River Delta
German Research Foundation (DFG) Priority Programme 'Megacities' (SPP 1233), 2008-2011
   * Chinese 'enclave urbanism' as a consequence of spatially differentiated urban governance
   * Intra-urban borders between neighbourhoods (gated communities, migrant enclaves etc.)
   * Neighbourhood attachment, home-making and the perception of borders in different neighbourhood types
   * Permeable borders and social and functional connectivity between neighbourhood types
   * Social networks and migrant integration in Guangzhou

Border-drawing and spatial differentiation of governance in the Pearl River Delta
German Research Foundation (DFG) Priority Programme 'Megacities' (SPP 1233), 2006-2009
   * Concept of spatially differentiated local governance: village, work-unit and private estate governance
   * Investigation and characterisation of these three different governance modes in Guangzhou
   * Focus on actor constellations and modes of interaction in neighbourhood-scale case studies
   * Relationship of spatial differentiation of neighbourhood governance and emerging intra-urban boundaries
   * Multidimensional concept of borders, including also social, mental, functional and physical dimensions

Smaller projects (below 50,000 EUR)

Cross-border shopping and the encounter of difference in Hong Kong
Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), Research Development Fund (RDF), 2015-2016
   * Mainland shopping tourism in Hong Kong and its socio-cultural dimension
   * Relations between border policies, cross-border mobility and mental borders
   * Spatial processes of de-bordering and re-bordering

Multi-sensory perception of urban green spaces
Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), Research Development Fund (RDF), 2014-2016
   * Visual, acoustic and olfactory aspects of landscape perception in urban parks
   * Three different case studies in Suzhou: observation and interviews during four seasons
   * Investigating the subjective perception - of the overall impression and the contribution of three senses

Development of cultural geography in Germany and China
German Academic Exchange Agency (DAAD), Short-term Scholarship, 2011
* History of the sub-discipline in both countries in comparison
* Paradigm shift from traditional to 'new' cultural geography

Overcoming borders, living with borders: Macau and the integration process
Instituto Cultural do Macau (ICM), Research Scholarship, 2002-2005
   * The integration processes of Hong Kong and Macau in comparison
   * Strategies employed by people in Macau to live with borders and to overcome them in their daily life
   * Cross-border perception, identities and awareness of space, cross-border activity spaces
   * Cross-border mobility and the rise of mainland tourism in Macau

Publications

Most recent publications

LIAO Kaihuai, Rainer WEHRHAHN and Werner BREITUNG (2018): Urban planners and the production of gated communities in China - a structure-agency approach. Urban Studies (https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098018801138).
BREITUNG, Werner and LI Xueyan (2018): Creativity and place in former industrial buildings - the cases of Redtory in Guangzhou (China) and Auf AEG in Nuremberg (Germany). In: Pan Liyong (ed.): Leisure and Cultural Creativity, Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, pp. 324-360.
LIAO Kaihuai, Werner BREITUNG and Rainer WEHRHAHN (2018): Debordering and rebordering in the residential borderlands of suburban Guangzhou. In: Urban Geography 39(7): 1092-1112.
FENG Dan and Werner BREITUNG (2017): What makes you feel at home? Constructing senses of home in two border cities. In: Population, Space and Place (https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2116).
BREITUNG, Werner and Jing LU (2017): Suzhou’s water grid as urban heritage and tourism resource - an urban morphology approach to a Chinese city. In: Journal of Heritage Tourism 12(3): 251-266.

YAN Bingqiu, GAO Xiaolu and Werner BREITUNG (2016): Neighbourhood determinants for life satisfaction of older people in Beijing. In Wang Donggen and He Shenjing (eds.): Mobility, sociability and well-being of urban living, Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 231-248.

Most representative publications

BREITUNG, Werner (2012): Enclave urbanism in China. Attitudes towards gated communities in Guangzhou. In: Urban Geography 33 (2): 278-294.

BREITUNG, Werner (2011): Borders and the city. Intra-urban boundaries in Guangzhou (China). In: Quaestiones Geographicae 30 (4): pp. 55-61.
FENG Dan and Werner BREITUNG (2017): What makes you feel at home? Constructing senses of home in two border cities. In: Population, Space and Place (https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2116).
BREITUNG, Werner (2014): Differentiated neighbourhood governance in transitional urban China. Comparative study of two housing estates in Guangzhou. In Yip Ngai-Ming (ed.): Neighbourhood Governance in Urban China, Gloucestershire: Edward Elgar, pp. 145-166.
LIAO Kaihuai, Werner BREITUNG and Rainer WEHRHAHN (2018): Debordering and rebordering in the residential borderlands of suburban Guangzhou. In: Urban Geography 39(7): 1092-1112.

FENG Dan, Werner BREITUNG and ZHU Hong (2015): Creating and defending concepts of home in suburban Guangzhou. In: Eurasian Geography and Economics 55 (4): 381-403.

Complete list of publications (64 publications)

Papers presented at conferences and universities (only up to 2008)

Memberships

International Geographical Union (IGU)
Association of Borderlands Studies (ABS)
Geographical Society of China (GSC)
China Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers (AAG)
Verband der Geographen an Deutschen Hochschulen (VGDH)
Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin (GfE)
Hong Kong Association for European Studies (HKAES)