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Shenzhen is one of the world's cities with the fastest urbanization and the most astonishing changes, and it is also a typical benchmark of Chinese rapid urbanization miracle. Under the tide of neoliberalism and globalization, the central government gave Shenzhen the priority of reform and experimentation first, then it has been rapidly pushed to the front stage as a test field for China's reform and opening up. Shenzhen has become the world's first-tier city in a short time with its location advantage and high-quality talent attraction, as well as active private economy and scientific and technological innovation. Through the multi-dimensional data analysis of the great changes during Shenzhen's urbanization, and a summary of the advantages of the Shenzhen model, this paper systematically answers the question that why Shenzhen can achieve urbanization so quickly. Furthermore, it concludes challenges of Shenzhen's future development and discusses the inspirations of the Shenzhen model for other cities. Based on the above analysis, this paper constructs an organic framework comprehensively covering achievements, characteristics, challenges, and inspirations of Shenzhen's rapid urbanization model. In the future, Shenzhen needs to transform from "Shenzhen Speed" to "Shenzhen Quality" to realize sustainable high-quality urbanization. • The drastic changes of Shenzhen's urbanization in the past 40 years from three dimensions of population, economy and land. • Five prominent characteristics of Shenzhen's urbanization development model. • Summary of three challenges of Shenzhen's future sustainable development. • Some inspirations from Shenzhen model for other cities, especially global southern cities, to learn and replicate. • A comprehensive framework covering achievements, model, challenges, and inspirations of Shenzhen's urbanization development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many urban residents have recently lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has made employment vulnerability in cities attained attention. It is thus important to explore the relationship between urbanization and employment. This study quantitatively analyzes spatiotemporal evolution and data correlation of urbanization and vulnerable employment, and explores the role urbanization plays in vulnerable employment by using historical data on 163 countries in the period 1991–2019 to test the theoretical hypothesis. The results show: It's clearly observed that there is a high correlation between the rate of urbanization and that of vulnerable employment, and the examples of G7 and BRICs are for it. The estimated urbanization yields a negative and statistically significant regression coefficient (−0.168), indicating that urbanization has a negative effect on vulnerable employment. If the urbanization rate increased by 1 %, the rate of vulnerable employment decreased by 0.168 %. The rural–urban sector conversion and changes in employment relationship driven by urbanization account for this. Countries with different income groups or populations have reacted differently to the rise in urbanization. Vulnerable employment in higher-income countries has been more significantly affected by the rise in urbanization, and more populous countries are more sensitive to it as well. These findings provide evidence for how urbanization promotes employment and decent work. • A theoretical framework identifying what the relationship of urbanization and vulnerable employment is. • A high correlation between urbanization and vulnerable employment is well presented in data correlation. • Empirical evidence on the role urbanization plays in vulnerable employment and the negative relationship confirmed. • Fine distinctions in urbanization effects on vulnerable employment affected by wealth level and labor supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]