Top-down spatial developments and bottom-up consumption of space: Merits at the micro-scale in China's shrinking cities

Abstract

Current studies on urban shrinkage tend to regard the phenomenon as city-level processes with an overlook on its inner complexity. Due to the ongoing urbanisation and pro-growth planning paradigm, spatial developments in shrinking cities in China has been especially complex. Therefore, this paper addresses such complexity and leverages on the neighbourhood change theory to investigate the relationship between spatial developments led by elite-structured urban policy and local people's consumption of space at the neighbourhood level. Both formal and informal practices generated by local people are regarded as influencing neighbourhood change. An embedded case study was conducted in Fushun city in Northeast China. Top-down spatial developments in Fushun reflects the pursuit of neighbourhoods' exchange values. Local people are found to consume urban space in different manners due to the detached nature of urban planning and policy from the local context. Informal practices are responsive to the wider structural underpinnings and have become a force shaping urban space under the shrinkage context. Considering current mono-visioned urban planning and policy, there is a need for a comprehensive planning approach incorporating the consumption of space when addressing the issue of urban shrinkage.