A reflection on coproduction processes in urban collective construction land transformation: A case study of Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta

Abstract

The introduction of a national construction land quota in China has made urban collective construction land transformation imperative in urban governance in the Pearl River Delta and beyond. Whilst normative planning approaches have failed to produce desired outcomes, special pilot land use policies applied in this region provided an alternative deliberative space for co-production practices to thrive. Using project level experiences and based on qualitative interviews with villagers, representatives of village collectives, planning professionals and private investors, this paper discusses the relationship between shifting pilot collective construction land use policies and institutionalised co-production practices. We argue based on the empirical findings that although co-production practices offer a great potential for transformative land development, the outcomes of the practices differ depending on the adaptability of land use policies to actor interests. Adaptive collaboration among key stakeholders at an early phase of urban collective land transformation encourages a better engagement of stakeholders, and stimulates promising co-productive initiatives that are critical at resolving the dilemmas involved in land transformation projects. The paper also contributes to the burgeoning discourse on co-production theory by flagging up how two key contradictions: ‘flexibility’ versus ‘regulation’ affect the success of co-production ventures and calls for an experimentation of the oxymoron of ‘flexible regulation’ in co-productive governance.