“滇之大，惟铜与盐。”盐在云南历史上占据重要地位。本书选取云南重要的盐产区之一白盐井（今为石羊古镇）为田野点，以“盐”为切入点，加入历时的维度，回溯了其城镇化的历时表达，即“因盐而兴”的城镇化、“因盐而衰”的城镇化和“因盐复兴”的城镇化。并分析抽离出影响石羊古镇城镇化的关键因素：资源、市场、人的流动、国家角色，这些要素在城镇化进程中的各个阶段互相作用。本书的最终目的是探索中国本土语境下的城镇化表述。
"Yun is great, but copper and salt." Salt occupies an important place in the history of Yunnan. This book selects Baiyanjing (now Shiyang Ancient Town), one of the important salt-producing areas in Yunnan, as the field point, takes "salt" as the starting point, adds the diachronic dimension, and traces the diachronic expression of its urbanization, that is, the urbanization of "prosperity due to salt", the urbanization of "decline due to salt" and the urbanization of "revival due to salt". The key factors affecting the urbanization of Shiyang Ancient Town were analyzed: resources, market, human flow, and state role, which interacted with each other at various stages of the urbanization process. The ultimate goal of this book is to explore the expression of urbanization in the context of local China.
