Analysis on the political construction of scale of state-level new areas

Abstract

The State-level New Area is an emerging type of regional space produced by the national strategy of Regional Coordinated Development in China. It is not a fixed material entity nested in the practice of spatial production, but contains multiple scales of dynamic changes. Therefore, from the multi-dimensional connotations of scale, this paper discusses the internal logic and institutional shaping of political construction of scale. It is suggested that the State-level New Area has the geographic scale characteristics of vast and cross-regional area, the administrative scale characteristics of testability and recursion, and the power scale characteristics of flexibility and flattening. Finally, this paper highlighted that the ‘rigid’ political scale represented by the State-level New Area can directly promote the rise of city-regions, and can establish a new type of ‘central-local’ governance relationship. Thus, it is of great significance for China’s social and economic transformation and regional governance innovation to make good use of the ‘rigid’ scale tool of the State-level New Area.