Debates on China's rapid urbanization have been focussed on the development of large metropolises and megacities, especially along the eastern seaboard. In contrast, the equally striking emergence of a multitude of small towns across the country has so far remained relatively understudied. This is the premise from which Beatriz Carrillo begins her account of Hongtong county in Shanxi province as a case study of rural urbanization. Her main argument is that small market towns (zhen) are better suited for social inclusion of rural labour than larger cities, which are more commonly studied as sites of migration. To substantiate this overall argument she draws on in-depth interviews with almost 80 individuals conducted between early 2003 and late 2005, mostly in Hongtong's county government seat of Dahuaishu. She also makes use of local statistical data, wherever this is available, and comparison with secondary literature to place her findings into context. Thus, Carrillo presents a discussion of a broad range of topics in rural urbanization that takes Hongtong as an illustration of larger developments and trends.

Since no single county or town can be representative of all of China's huge hinterland, the author carefully delineates the particularities of Shanxi's and Hongtong's development paths. Hongtong is a particularly populous county and resembles much of Shanxi in terms of its economy's heavy reliance on the coal industry. Dahuaishu town, however, is mostly an administrative and commercial centre. Against this backdrop, Carrillo outlines China's “dual track” urbanization strategy which has variously emphasized small towns and larger urban centres over the reform decades. She argues that towns and small cities provide easier access to urban and non-agricultural jobs, often involving commuting from home villages rather than outright migration. In Hongtong at least, the household registration (hukou) system nowadays presents almost no barrier to the urban labour market, except for government employment. Urbanization naturally involves physical construction of housing which plays out very differently in small towns compared to sprawling cities. Carrillo finds that most respondents possess their own housing (often self-built dwellings), even among the rural-to-urban migrants in her sample. While surging demand for coal in the early 2000s caused a small construction boom in the county, and residential housing construction became more commercialized, she finds only limited evidence of housing segregation along the lines of social class or income, as is now common in larger urban centres.

Besides physical construction, building an institutional infrastructure has a large bearing on the accommodation of rural labour. Therefore, Carrillo investigates the evolution of local social security schemes, the health sector and education. All of these fields are deeply influenced by the overall trend of decentralization and state retrenchment in the reform era that provided opportunities for private actors to establish themselves. With respect to the fledgling pension system, Carrillo finds that this is mostly of concern for (former) state-sector employees. Most rural residents rather rely on family savings for old-age support. Health is a somewhat different case, as illness can strike suddenly and may potentially have catastrophic financial consequences. However, in contrast to other studies, Carrillo's respondents were quite unconcerned with health insurance. More in line with existing studies, she finds considerable problems with public and private health providers (now growing in number), both of which lack proper incentives and regulatory oversight. Private competition is also increasing in education, and at least in small towns such as Dahuaishu hukou reform has nearly eliminated the disadvantages of migrant children in access to urban schools at the level of compulsory education. In terms of overall educational attainment rural residents still fall behind in the race for academic achievement that has become so dominant in Chinese society. But Hongtong offers informal training in the form of apprenticeships, imbuing skills sufficient for the local labour market in those who drop out of school.

In sum, Carrillo marshals sufficient evidence to support her claim that small towns actually provide an alternative platform for the social inclusion of rural labour as China marches along the path to become a largely urban society. Her study touches on many different topics to create a “holistic” picture of small-town life. But any reader expecting a thick ethnographic account will be somewhat disappointed by a lack of detail on the case itself, including respondents' subjective views. The lengthy sections on well-known national trends will be more helpful for students than for researchers. That said, the book contributes a different perspective to the growing body of literature on China's urbanization and will be read with benefit by scholars of urbanization and rural development.