Understanding urban planning failure in China: Identifying practitioners' perspectives using Q methodology

Abstract

Since 2006, urban planning has been termed as an important element of public policy in China. Urban master planning has theoretically been the fundamental strategy with regard to the distribution of spatial resources in urban areas. However, in reality, the regulation of urban planning has not achieved the legally binding goals pertaining to resource savings, environment friendliness, and preservation of natural and cultural resources. There have been public power interferences in the implementation of urban planning, which has often led to serious environmental pollution, destruction of heritage, and safety issues. This article uses “Urban planning failure” to describe this phenomenon. Currently, practitioners disagree on what causes urban planning failure exactly. The Q methodology has been applied to facilitate the analysis of urban planning failure in the Chinese context. The research findings show that the “top-down” (senior official's absolute authority) and “network” (stakeholder's multiple interaction) interpretation of urban planning failure have been verified, while the “bottom-up” interpretation has not been substantiated. In the institutional context of decentralization of decision making power in urban planning from the central to local governments, senior official's absolute authority of local governments is the logical starting point to interpret the urban planning failure. The pressure of political performance and the absolute obedience of subordinates molded the structural conditions of urban planning failure. Meanwhile, stakeholder interactions too have played important roles in the context of information asymmetry, interest entanglement, and lack of supervision.