Objective/Meaning  Transitional communities are the intermediate form of transition from rural communities to urban communities in China's urbanisation process, and promoting the governance and development of transitional communities is an important grip for implementing a new type of urbanisation with people at its core and promoting the integrated development of urban and rural areas.

  Methods/Procedures  The 881 “core papers of Peking University” and “CSSCI” documents in China Knowledge Network (CNKI) were statistically and analytically analyzed with the help of CiteSpace visual analysis software, and the thematic trends of “transformed communities” research were summarized through keyword clustering, seeking expert advice and keyword highlighting.

  Results/Conclusions  The results show that the hot research themes of transitional communities cover six major areas such as spatial transformation, governance transformation, collective property rights system reform and collective economic development, villagers’ citizenship, residential segregation and community community reconstruction, etc. Urban integration and sustainable development of transitional communities under the vision of urban renewal will become an important research trend.