The role of key stakeholders in the bottom-up planning processes of Guangzhou, China

Abstract

The interplay between key stakeholders in urban development is one of the key concerns in contemporary international theory on urbanism and planning. This paper seeks to contribute to this concern, addressing the interplay between three key stakeholders (the state, the market and society) in the bottom-up planning processes of Tangxia Village, a typical ‘village in the city’ in Guangzhou, China. The mosaic spatial structure of Tangxia Village has been produced and overlapped by different planning processes, each created by various key stakeholders. The socio-spatial structure of the traditional rural settlement formed the basic layer of Tangxia Village, while newly added layers have resulted largely from the intertwining of regulated city development and unregulated self-development. Recently, a bottom-up process has generated a wide range of attention, as it has functioned very well in reshaping the space in Tangxia Village. This paper concludes that the integration of bottom-up processes and micro-strategies would strengthen the performance and efficiency of redevelopment strategies for Tangxia Village.