Multi-level governance in the uneven integration of the city regions: Evidence of the Shanghai City Region, China

Abstract

City-regionalism has been manipulated as the primary strategy in China to enhance the competitiveness of local authorities. However, as local governments sometimes fail to share a common goal favourable to their interest, city-regionalism faces various problems. This article focuses on multi-level governance (MLG) at the sub-national scale within the city region and its influence on the city-regionalisation. By revealing the process and spatial outcome of cross-boundary integration in the Shanghai City Region (SHCR), this study discovers that the city regionalisation of SHCR has undergone three stages of evolution, resulting in the current uneven integration in the peripheries manifested in economic, social and spatial dimensions. By investigating the motivations behind inter-jurisdictional and inter-scalar cooperation among local governments based on the MLG theory, this study concludes that the pursuit for the economic spill-over can be distinctly identified from the provincial to the county level governments. During the process of city-regionalisation, multi-scalar governance and inter-jurisdictional interaction were adopted by the sub-national governments to pursue the options that favour the interests of each side. However, these seemingly harmonious initiatives have not led to collaboration and cooperation among local agencies. Nevertheless, they have instead induced contested strategies manipulated to seek the best interests of each side whereby conflicts and negotiation have emerged and reflected on spatial shaping towards uneven integration. During this process, the essential role of the provincial governments engaged in MLG in city regionalisation are highlighted.