On 6 December 2011, Dr. Agnieszka Joniak-Lüthi and PhD Candidate Madlen Kobi, both from the Institute of Social Anthropology at University of Berne in Switzerland, presented their fieldwork at the roundtable at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS/IEA) in Beijing.

The research topic of Dr. Agnieszka Joniak-Lüthi is 'Transportation development, mobility patterns and social change in Xinjiang'. She focused on social transformations and changes in population mobility induced by developing transportation network in Xinjiang. The growing accessibility of transportation brings new opportunities to the local people and has great influence on population mobility patterns within the region itself as well as between the region and other Chinese provinces. At the same time, new challenges are inevitable. Ms. Madlen Kobi discussed 'Urban Renewal in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region: How Economic Development and New Apartment Houses Shape Urban Space use-A case study with examples from Kashgar, Aksu and Kuche'. She pointed out that in many southern Xinjiang cities, traditional one-story houses are being replaced by modern skyscrapers. Ms. Kobi emphasized the influence of physical space changes on social transformations. Different ethnic groups in those places have to adapt to new lifestyle. Ms. Kobi further mentioned that both positive and negative influences co-exist in the process of urbanization.

Dr. Agnieszka Joniak-Lüthi and Ms. Madlen Kobi carried out their fieldwork in Xinjiang from March through to December 2011 in collaboration with Xinjiang University. The two presentations were followed by a long and lively discussion with eleven other scholars from the CASS, Minzu University of China and Tsinghua University.