Tim Oakes was awarded a $230,272 grant from the National Science Foundation for the project "Re-ordering public space, governing urban citizens: evaluating the effects of urban spatial transformation" in SW China. Oakes is collaborating with Professor Wu Xiaoping of Guizhou Minzu University on the project, which studies the redevelopment of commercial and residential spaces in small and medium sized Chinese cities. The project seeks to understand the ways China's massive urban rebuilding is effecting people's everyday lives, and how municipal governments use redevelopment projects to both brand and govern their cities.