Abstract
Rapid economic development in China has generated substantial demand for urban land for development, resulting in an unprecedented urbanization process. The expansion of urbanized cities has started to engulf rural areas, making the urban–rural boundary less and less conspicuous in China. Urban encroachment has led to a rapid shrinkage of the rural territory as the rural–urban migration has increased due to better job opportunities and living standards in the urban cities. Urban villages, governed by a rural property rights mechanism, have started to emerge sporadically within urbanised areas. Various approaches, such as state-led, developer-led, or collective-led approaches, to redevelop these urban villages have been adopted with varying degrees of success. This paper uses a case-study framework to analyse the state–market interplay in two very different urban village redevelopment cases in Guangzhou. By an in-depth comparative analysis of the two regeneration cases in Guangzhou, which started within close proximity in terms of geographical location and timing, we are able to shed light on how completely different outcomes may result from different forms of state–market interplay. It is found that a neoliberal policy approach that aims at coordinating state resources with market forces rather than discarding the state’s role provides a more satisfactory outcome in urban village redevelopment when there are a lot of stakeholders involved each with different agendas. The state maintains a good balance of the power-play in the process with a clear and supportive policy and regulatory guidance, leaving the market to function more effectively and satisfactorily in effectuating capital flow for the project, which helps to achieve sustainable outcomes.
Highlights
Ever since China started its economic reforms in the 1970s, followed by market reforms in the urban land tenure system in the 1980s, the impacts of urbanization in China have attracted a lot of attention in both the academic and policy research fields [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Urban encroachment has led to a rapid shrinkage of rural territory as rural–urban migration increases due to better job opportunities and living standards in the urban cities [13]
Neoliberalism has as a central element reliance on a market approach to solve socio-economic inefficiency problems, which coincides with the core objective of the economic reforms in China
Summary
Ever since China started its economic reforms in the 1970s, followed by market reforms in the urban land tenure system in the 1980s, the impacts of urbanization in China have attracted a lot of attention in both the academic and policy research fields [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The growing disparity between rural farmers and their urban counterparts in terms of income earning capacity, education opportunities, social welfare package, as well as potential windfall gain from the land economy has made the exodus from rural villages more severe [15,16] This rural–urban migration further increases pressure on urban cities to expand in order to accommodate these newcomers, and further exacerbates the urban encroachment problem. The objective of this paper is to analyse and illustrate the impacts and effects of different governance structures adopted by the Guangzhou government in the process of urban village redevelopment through two major case studies Through comparing these two cases by means of a critical realist analytical framework, we will be able to highlight the circumstances under which sustainable outcomes, especially in terms of social sustainability, can be generated from a neoliberal redevelopment approach. Such an urban dynamic allows researchers a rare opportunity to examine the state–market interplay displayed in various urban spatial restructuring progresses, and urban village redevelopment is one of the most important ones
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