Observations in a number of developed countries have shown a stagnating or declining trend in the level of car use and sparked a heated debate on whether such trend would persist into the future. While arguments over the potential causes of this trend remain largely unsettled, the crucial implications of the long-term trends on the strategic development of transport infrastructure as well as the long-term planning schemes in the transportation sector are generally agreed upon. This study aims at providing evidence of the changing trends in an under-researched area with historically limited car dependence and distinct cultural and social characteristics through disaggregate analysis on several large-scale datasets. Three separate case studies were carried out to identify the changes in car ownership, activity-travel behavior, car use, and personal attitudes towards cars in different Chinese cities, namely Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Beijing. Statistical modeling approaches were applied for the disaggregate analysis at the household and individual levels. Findings in the case study of Hong Kong suggest that the level of car ownership and car use has shown indications of levelling-off and even a certain degree of decrease in the past decade, despite the low level of car dependence for the entirety of the city’s history. Results in the case of Shenzhen, on the other hand, indicate a surging car ownership rate in recent years, which is in contrast with the situation in its neighboring city of Hong Kong. The interactions between built environment and travel behavior have also changed significantly in Shenzhen, a city undergoing rapid expansion. The third case study reports that the level of auto-mobility has increased significantly during the past decade in Shenzhen and all age groups and cohorts experienced similar uptrends in car ownership and car use. In addition, analysis on the dataset from Beijing suggests that young adults do not evaluate private cars and their functions as favorably as the middle-age adults. Findings in this study contribute to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence on the recent changes in car ownership, activity-travel behavior, and attitudes towards private cars in the Chinese context. This study also highlights the importance to expand the range of research attention out of the developed and motorized countries in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamics in travel behavior and auto-mobility around the world. Findings also have important policy implications in curbing auto-dependence in daily travel and planning and managing future transportation.

Intergenerational income mobility is of great societal importance due to its relevance to equal socio-economic opportunity and future economic efficiency. In her book Dr Hou explores the potential role of education policy in reducing intergenerational transmission of poverty and promoting intergenerational income mobility in China. Her research investigates the extent to which intergenerational income persists in China, the mechanisms behind intergenerational inequality, and premises for policy intervention. The interaction between families, labour markets, and public policies that structure a child’s opportunities and determine the extent to which income is related to family background are discussed in detail. The book comprises of three separate empirical studies examining the relationship between parents’ income and the long-term welfare of their children for two birth cohorts; the role education plays in the intergenerational income relationship; and possible policy intervention channels to facilitate intergenerational income mobility. The lessons learnt from the empirical studies in this book offer the basis for a discussion of current educational policies and provide guidance for developing more appropriate public policies to promote intergenerational income mobility in China in the future. This book contributes to the international discussion by providing evidence in Chinese context, and also provides guidance for policymakers attempting to develop more appropriate public policies to promote intergenerational income mobility in China.

"The widening of income and wealth inequality has become one of the most important obstacles on the road to China's common prosperity. In the context of inequality reduction and anti-poverty strategy in China, this book investigates the complex relationship between education and intergenerational mobility in terms of occupation and income. Based on large-scale social survey data, cutting-edge econometric models and statistical methods, the book examines the role of education in breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty and promoting intergenerational mobility. It analyzes the characteristics of birth cohorts in intergenerational mobility, the long-term trends of educational, occupational, and income mobility among rural and urban residents across generations, and also the regional different patterns of intergenerational mobility against the background of social changes in China. Based on empirical findings, the author advances suggestions on an education policy conducive to poverty alleviation. The book will appeal to scholars and students studying the sociology of education, the economics of education and Chinese education, as well as policy makers interested in the topics of education policy systems and poverty alleviation, as well as education equity and social mobility"--

Based on the findings of the China General Social Survey, this study aims to analyze the trend of the intergenerational mobility in China since the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy by evaluating the absolute and relative mobility rates through the mobility table. The intergenerational mobility level in China is relatively high from the perspective of the absolute mobility rates. Besides, the overall trend is upward and social openness is quite high. However, the intergenerational mobility level is relatively low and gradually declining from the perspective of the relative mobility rates that reflect the equality of mobility opportunities. In addition, the social class structure shows a tendency of solidifying. While the absolute mobility rates reflect the efficiency of the intergenerational mobility, the relative mobility rates reflect its fairness. However, since the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy, Chinese society appears to be in a state of inadequate equality but with high efficiency. In this study, we generally regarded education as a critical factor of the intergenerational mobility. Lately, China has implemented a series of education policies, including the resumption of university entrance examination policy, compulsory education policy, and college enrollment expansion policy. The Chinese government endeavors to enhance national education attainment and sustain absolute mobility at a higher level. Nevertheless, the differences in education attainment of offspring from different social classes have increased gradually, making education inequality a significant factor of lower relative mobility. Thus, the government should increase the intergenerational mobility level by creating a healthy and stable economic development environment and improving education inequality.​

Researchers developed two scenarios to envision the future of mobility in China in 2030. Economic growth, the presence of constraints on vehicle ownership and driving, and environmental conditions differentiate the scenarios. By making potential long-term mobility futures more vivid, the team sought to help decisionmakers at different levels of government and in the private sector better anticipate and prepare for change.

This open access book is the first to systematically introduce the principles of urban informatics and its application to every aspect of the city that involves its functioning, control, management, and future planning. It introduces new models and tools being developed to understand and implement these technologies that enable cities to function more efficiently – to become ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’. The smart city has quickly emerged as computers have become ever smaller to the point where they can be embedded into the very fabric of the city, as well as being central to new ways in which the population can communicate and act. When cities are wired in this way, they have the potential to become sentient and responsive, generating massive streams of ‘big’ data in real time as well as providing immense opportunities for extracting new forms of urban data through crowdsourcing. This book offers a comprehensive review of the methods that form the core of urban informatics from various kinds of urban remote sensing to new approaches to machine learning and statistical modelling. It provides a detailed technical introduction to the wide array of tools information scientists need to develop the key urban analytics that are fundamental to learning about the smart city, and it outlines ways in which these tools can be used to inform design and policy so that cities can become more efficient with a greater concern for environment and equity.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.