Towards collaborative approach? Investigating the regeneration of urban village in Guangzhou, China

Abstract

Along with the green-land shortage and the low use efficiency of urban land as a result of rapid urban sprawl in the past three decades, the issue of urban regeneration has been recently brought to the governance agenda by the new leadership in China. This paper examines the regeneration of the urban village sector in Guangzhou and finds that the institutional dichotomy of the rural and urban system is not only the root of the emergence and proliferation of urban villages, but also becomes the obstacle for their regenerations. The core of urban village regeneration is the redistribution of interest derived from land appreciation among main stakeholders, and their joint commitment via a collaborative partnership is the key to the successful project implementation. Though the collaborative approach for urban regeneration is acknowledged in the West and in the case study, the top-down hierarchical governance approach, the strong government-dominated ideology as a result of the legacy of socialism, and the economic-led developmental mode will fundamentally set the form of collaboration in China apart from other counties. Even within China there is no single universal and prescribed form of collaboration for urban regeneration due to the variations in terms of geographical, demographical and socio-economic conditions for urban development.