Tourism dreams in rubble: Mass demolition and the reconfiguration of growth coalitions within China's ecological civilization

Abstract

Amidst the mounting interest in China's Ecological Civilization (EC) campaign, this paper examines its ground-level implementation and its influences on fostering eco-conscious urban governance. Employing a temporal approach to scrutinize the change in local priorities over time, this paper conducts a detailed case study of Dali, a tourist destination in Southwest China. Environmental protection has escalated in this city over the last decade, manifesting in diverse measures adopted by the local government, including the demolition of hundreds of buildings in the core conservation zone of the lake Erhai. This paper demonstrates how the campaign of EC has strengthened environmental efforts locally, while emphasizing that local compliance relies on heightened oversight and financial support from the central government. Moreover, this paper argues that, despite resembling a degrowth strategy in terms of rhetoric and short-term effects, EC-led demolition serves as a spatio-temporal fix that has helped the local government to address both ecological and political imperatives, with growth coalitions being reconfigured. Overall, this paper contributes to scholarly discussions on the impacts of the EC campaign, expands the comprehension of the dynamic process of greening urban governance, and spotlights the analytical prowess of the demolition lens in such studies.