Redevelopment In China Research Articles

A Hesitant Probabilistic Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Group Decision-Making Framework for Urban Land Consolidation in China

Urban land consolidation (ULC) is a technique used globally for urbanization planning. Selecting a suitable area for ULC becomes the most feasible plan for urban redevelopment in China, which can be regarded as a complex multi-criteria group decision-making problem. In this article, a hesitant probabilistic fuzzy multi-criteria group decision-making framework is proposed to solve the site selection problem of ULC. In the framework, hesitant probabilistic fuzzy set are used to represent the evaluation information provided by decision makers. Furthermore, the framework utilizes a new method based on entropy and the analytic hierarchy process for determining weights. The hesitant probabilistic fuzzy combined weighted logarithmic averaging distance (HPFCWLAD) measure is then introduced for sorting the alternatives found by the system. To validate the proposed framework, a site selection case of ULC including five alternatives in Hangzhou is investigated. The effectiveness and stability of the framework is proved through a comparative analysis.

Spatial restructuring and the logic of industrial land redevelopment in urban China: III. A case study of the redevelopment of a central state-owned enterprise in Nanjing

Drawing upon the game-theoretical concepts for urban land redevelopment in China, this paper provides further substantiation on, and demonstrates, two major fronts in empirical terms. First, the redevelopment trajectory of industrial land that had been used by a central state-owned enterprise (SOE) was identified and was shown as deadlocked by disputes on the pathway to cooperation between the local government and the original land user. Second, the shifts in the bargains between the pair from the “prisoners’ dilemma” to “pigs’ payoffs,” and then to “neo-pigs’ payoffs” were analyzed, and we showed how industrial land can be redeveloped. Finally, we argued that disputes between the entrepreneuralization of local governments and the politicization of SOEs constitute a potent system of explanatory coordinates that effectively reveal the hidden logic of industrial land redevelopment in urban China. Different from the redevelopment of local SOEs, communications between the user and owner of urban land, as well as the tradeoff of benefits, are key factors in breaking the aforementioned deadlock.

Exploring the Diverse Expectations of Stakeholders in Industrial Land Redevelopment Projects in China: The Case of Shanghai

In China, while large-scale industrial land redevelopment has played a significant role in promoting economic growth, it has also triggered a series of unsustainable problems. To date, few studies have explored the expectations of stakeholders in industrial redevelopment projects in China. Gaining an in-depth understanding of the diverse expectations among core stakeholders is an essential step towards realizing social sustainability. This study aims to analyze these diverse expectations in industrial land redevelopment projects. For this purpose, 19 factors were identified and compared across the following core stakeholders: local governments, consulting experts, the general public, and original land users of state-led redevelopment and land user-led redevelopment projects, using questionnaires and interviews conducted in Shanghai, China. The findings show there to be tremendous differences between the expectations of different stakeholder groups in terms of economic, social and environmental aspects. Major differences were also found between the expectations of original land users across different project types. Moreover, the negative externalities, the balance between industrial and residential space, the diverse needs of original land users in different project types, and the barriers to stakeholders’ participation, in industrial land redevelopment in China were discussed. The findings of the current paper are conducive to optimizing stakeholder participation in industrial land redevelopment so as to enhance social sustainability.

Heterogeneity of public participation in urban redevelopment in Chinese cities: Beijing versus Guangzhou

Chinese cities, especially large cities, are in urgent need of urban redevelopment but social conflicts in redevelopment processes have threatened social stability. Public participation has been stipulated in national policies to alleviate these conflicts and the responsibility to implement these policies has been delegated to local governments. Therefore, the features of public participation may differ between Chinese cities. Yet, a systematic investigation of this possible heterogeneity is lacking. This article adapts 11 features of governance to build a framework to compare public participation in urban redevelopment in Beijing and Guangzhou. Findings show that the two cities are similar in five features (policy instruments, policy integration, initiators, position of stakeholders, policy level at which citizens operate) but differ in six (policy goals, policy–science interface, power base of citizens, model of representation, rules of interaction and mechanisms of social interaction), making citizens in urban redevelopment in Guangzhou more powerful than their counterparts in Beijing. The observed shift towards urban micro-redevelopment might further strengthen the power of citizens in urban redevelopment in Beijing, but might weaken their power base in Guangzhou. The findings highlight the importance of local context and policy dynamics in the study of public participation in urban redevelopment in China.

Strategies of the built-heritage stewardship movement in urban redevelopment in the Internet Age: The case of the Bell-Drum Towers controversy in Beijing, China

The built-heritage stewardship movement has become visible in China’s urban redevelopment, but theoretical and empirical research on the movement’s strategies in an authoritarian context is lacking. To systematically understand these strategies in the Internet Age, this article first develops a theoretical framework, then analyzes the context in which the movement operates, and thereafter examines the movement's strategies in the Bell-Drum Towers controversy in Beijing. Castells contends that the construction of meaning is a decisive source of both power and counter-power and that symbolic construction depends on the frames created and diffused in multimedia communication. The theoretical framework therefore consists of a detailed conceptualization of framing processes. The context analysis shows that the built-heritage stewardship movement can benefit from official policies and plans and from the proliferation of new media, despite the censorship of the Internet, the limitations in the judicial system, the repressive practice of law enforcement, and the annual inspections of civil society organizations by civil affairs authorities. The empirical study shows that the preservationists managed to effectively influence decision-makers through combining online and offline efforts, such as mobilizing the general public online to shape public debates, mobilizing higher-level governments to employ political pressure, and directly disempowering local decision-makers online. Framing analysis not only uncovers the strategies of social movements but also identifies which elements determine the success of socialized communication as a counter-power of urban redevelopment in China. The Internet provides channels for frames diffusion, and thus offers preservationists a space to counter power in an authoritarian context where real-world activities and traditional media are tightly controlled by the government.

Residents’ Perceptions of Impending Forced Relocation in Urban China: A case study of state-led urban redevelopment in Shenyang

Since 1978, urban redevelopment in China has resulted in large-scale neighbourhood demolition and forced residential relocation, which can severely disrupt established people-place interactions in the demolished neighbourhoods. Urban redevelopment in China has also been criticized by the public and scholars, because the position of the residents in decision-making processes of urban redevelopment is often marginalized. Conflicts have arisen between the residents, local governments and developers, against the backdrop of the uneven redistribution of capital accumulated via urban space reproduction such as the replacement of declining neighbourhoods in which low-income residents reside, with newly-build high-rise dwellings for middle- or high-income residents (Qian and He 2012, Weinstein and Ren 2009). The aim of the thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of the influence of urban redevelopment and its induced forced relocation on residents, by investigating their behavioural and emotional responses to the state-led urban redevelopment in Shenyang, a Chinese city. In particular, it highlights the agency of the affected residents, through exploring their interactions with other stakeholders and through displaying the ambivalence embedded in their neighbourhood experiences.

Understanding the experiences of relocatees during forced relocation in Chinese urban restructuring

Despite the massive forced relocation of residents during urban restructuring in China, there is no systematic overview regarding how residents experience the process and its outcomes. Most studies concerning urban restructuring in China directly equate forced relocation with displacement, which has a negative connotation. This exclusively negative view overlooks the multifaceted effects of forced relocation on relocatees. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of relocatees’ experienced during urban redevelopment in China by establishing a conceptual model in which the time sequence of events and their context are central, and by analysing the existing research on this topic about China. It conceptualises forced relocation as a process with various and changing socio-spatial implications over time, and as a specific type of residential mobility that occurs in the context of urban restructuring. As such, the paper presents a conceptual model that includes different stages and contexts to analyse the experiences of relocatees during and after forced relocation. It divides the process of forced relocation into a pre-demolition stage, a transitional stage and a post-relocation stage and investigates the social, economic, physical, psychological and behavioural dimensions of the experiences of relocatees as affected by the macro and micro context. As such, the conceptual model is used to structure the analysis of the existing literature about residents’ experiences and subsequently identify the gaps in the literature that should be addressed in future studies of forced relocation in the Chinese context.

Understanding the Experiences of Relocatees during Forced Relocation in Chinese Urban Restructuring

ABSTRACTDespite the massive forced relocation of residents during urban restructuring in China, there is no systematic overview regarding how residents experience the process and its outcomes. Most studies concerning urban restructuring in China directly equate forced relocation with displacement, which has a negative connotation. This predominantly negative view overlooks the multifaceted effects of forced relocation on relocatees. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of relocatees’ experiences during urban redevelopment in China by establishing a conceptual model in which the time sequence of events and their context are central. It conceptualizes forced relocation as a process with various and changing socio-spatial implications over time, and as a specific type of residential mobility that occurs in the context of urban restructuring. As such, the conceptual model divides the process of forced relocation into a pre-demolition stage, a transitional stage and a post-relocation stage and investigates the social, economic, physical, psychological and behavioural dimensions of the experiences of relocatees as affected by the macro and micro context. The conceptual model is used to structure the analysis of the existing literature about residents’ experiences and to subsequently identify the gaps in the literature that should be addressed in future studies of forced relocation in the Chinese context.

Residential relocation and the remaking of socialist workers through state-facilitated urban redevelopment in Chengdu, China

This article discusses the unevenness in the social effects of state-facilitated urban redevelopment in China by examining the social transformation experienced by the housing class of socialist workers in two inner-city redevelopment projects in Chengdu. After government compensation schemes, former public tenants and subsidised owners associated with socialist work-units are far more privileged through cash compensation or relocation in new self-owned apartments than two other housing classes – migrant tenants and homeowners of commodity or rural housing – impacted by the same urban redevelopment. The objective and subjective transformation of socialist workers during the process of resettlement are examined from field interviews, with their status changing from welfare recipients in danwei compounds to proprietors in new gated communities. We conclude that state-facilitated urban redevelopment in the Chinese city is interdependent with, and mutually reinforced by, state-led working-class transformation in market society, so as to balance the two critical national objectives of economic growth and social stability. State dominance in conferring variable opportunities via launching unequal housing trajectories among social groups determines the significant disparity of impacts from urban redevelopment in China.

Residents’ Perceptions of Impending Forced Relocation in Urban China

Residents’ Perceptions of Impending Forced Relocation in Urban China

From state-dominant to bottom-up redevelopment: Can institutional change facilitate urban and rural redevelopment in China

From state-dominant to bottom-up redevelopment: Can institutional change facilitate urban and rural redevelopment in China

Residents’ Perceptions of Impending Forced Relocation in Urban China

Residents’ Perceptions of Impending Forced Relocation in Urban China

Conclusions

Large-scale urban redevelopment in China has been taking place for decades since the market transitions from 1978, which have caused massive forced relocation of residents (He and Wu, 2007; MOHURD, 2013). This thesis has provided a comprehensive study on relocatees’ perceptions and experiences at the pre-demolition phase of the forced relocation and state-led urban redevelopment. Through an extensive overview of existing literature on the experiences of the affected residents and in-depth interviews with residents and other stakeholders in urban redevelopment, the thesis shows that current studies have largely ignored the temporal feature and dynamics embedded in urban redevelopment and forced relocation in the Chinese context. Also, the ambivalence of relocatees’ perceptions towards their lived experiences in their neighbourhoods is not fully addressed. Many studies and news reports have merely displayed the conflicting interactions between the residents and project initiators such as local governments or developers, and have considered the redevelopment projects as if they were a static event (He, 2012; Hin and Xin, 2011; Sichuan News, 2009). This conceals the mechanisms and complexity underlying the controversial and conflicting nature of forced relocation in the context of urban redevelopment. Driven by these concerns, we especially focus on individual relocatees’ perceptions, experiences, and behaviours towards impending forced relocation and urban redevelopment. We highlight the ambivalence in the interactions between residents and neighbourhoods (people-place) as well as residents, local governments and developers, from a residential mobility perspective. Our research therefore aims to gain a deeper understanding of how forced relocation and urban redevelopment affect residents of declining neighbourhoods in Shenyang, in terms of their pre-relocation neighbourhood perceptions and behaviours. This thesis is organized as followed. Chapter 1 is the introduction, which focuses on the research background, research aim and questions, research data and methods, and the history of urban (re)development of Shenyang. Chapter 2 provides a literature review on the experiences of residents, particularly the homeowners, during forced relocation in the Chinese context. This chapter is also the theoretical basis for the thesis, by identifying gaps in existing research and outlining the research questions for the following chapters. Chapter 3, 4 and 5 focus on the influence of Shantytown Redevelopment Programmes (SRPs) on the various dimensions of the perceptions and experiences of residents from declining neighbourhoods that are involved in the SRPs in the city of Shenyang. Chapter 3 investigates the evolution of the SRPs, related policies and the changing roles and interactions between the different stakeholders involved in SRPs, against changing macro-, social, economic and institutional contexts. Chapter 4 and 5 put the spotlight on individual residents’ experiences by specifically focusing on the people-place interactions with regard to place attachment and the ageing in place of older people. These two chapters also reveal the influence of the impending SRPs and impending forced relocation on the people-place interaction. The following section firstly summarizes the key findings of each chapter. A reflection on the research is presented in section 6.3. The last section outlines future directions for research and the policy implications.

Understanding the experiences of relocatees during forced relocation in Chinese urban restructuring

Despite the massive forced relocation of residents during urban restructuring in China, there is no systematic overview regarding how residents experience the process and its outcomes. Most studies concerning urban restructuring in China directly equate forced relocation with displacement, which has a negative connotation. This exclusively negative view overlooks the multifaceted effects of forced relocation on relocatees. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of relocatees’ experienced during urban redevelopment in China by establishing a conceptual model in which the time sequence of events and their context are central, and by analysing the existing research on this topic about China. It conceptualises forced relocation as a process with various and changing socio-spatial implications over time, and as a specific type of residential mobility that occurs in the context of urban restructuring. As such, the paper presents a conceptual model that includes different stages and contexts to analyse the experiences of relocatees during and after forced relocation. It divides the process of forced relocation into a pre-demolition stage, a transitional stage and a post-relocation stage and investigates the social, economic, physical, psychological and behavioural dimensions of the experiences of relocatees as affected by the macro and micro context. As such, the conceptual model is used to structure the analysis of the existing literature about residents’ experiences and subsequently identify the gaps in the literature that should be addressed in future studies of forced relocation in the Chinese context.

State Dominance in Urban Redevelopment

This article will revisit Smith’s seminal argument that gentrification is a global urban strategy. The article pays attention to the role of the state and displacement during the process of redevelopment. Through an in-depth study of a dilapidated neighborhood with concentrated migrant population in Shanghai, it is revealed that state control is behind the deterioration of the neighborhood prior to its redevelopment. Inadequate services and poor housing conditions are undeniable. Informal development has been quickly realigned by state dominance. The self-building neighborhood is eventually replaced by state-sanctioned development projects. The article echoes the debate over displacement in the West and suggests that recent urban redevelopment in China has gone beyond both the sporadic middle-class return to the city and residential changes backed up by state actions, revealing hegemonic power of the state over spatial production. Through urban redevelopment, the state attempts to regularize informal areas into new production spaces for its revenue maximization.

The changing and different patterns of urban redevelopment in China: a study of three inner-city neighborhoods

China's urban growth is phenomenal, but some studies tend to see it as a consistent macro process without much turbulence at the micro levels. This article examines inner-city redevelopment in China by analyzing the cases of three types of neighborhoods: a work-unit compound, a historic quarter, and an urban village. It discusses how these projects were implemented, which actors were involved, and who the beneficiaries were. It argues that different patterns of redevelopment were applied in individual redevelopment projects, although all of these projects were property led. The local state's considerations when applying a particular pattern depends on institutional abilities, arrangements, recourses, and aims, as well as the power relations between the state, market, and community. A comparison of processes and outcomes shows that a top-down approach applied through delegated agencies or the immediate authority of the local state tends to implement redevelopment in a coalition with developers instead of considering the benefits for the affected residents and the preservation of the values of historic neighborhoods. In contrast, the bottom-up approach to the redevelopment of urban villages empowers the collective and villagers and enables them to benefit relatively more from the project. The local state has changed its role from an administrator to a facilitator, and has made significant economic concessions to advance the project in the context of significant policy changes in recent years.

Evolution of transitional institutions for urban land redevelopment in China—Case in Guangzhou

Building effective institutions for markets is a great challenge to China’s transitional economy. China’s experience in establishing urban land markets is characterized by trial and error and the gradual evolution of transitional institutions. Based on archive data and interviews in a neighborhood (Jinhuajie) of Guangzhou, this research reveals that China’s land redevelopment in the past two decades has followed an approach of partial and gradual reform, which was structured by the gradual evolution of transitional institutions to speed up local land redevelopment within the existing property rights system. Transitional institutions, including highly compensated residents’ land use rights, in-kind land lease payment, flexible control on development rights of developers and short-term actual ownership of work units, are generated by the local government sequentially to dispel existing land use rights of different land users and make further development be able to follow market mechanisms.

Property-Led Redevelopment in Post-Reform China: A Case Study of Xintiandi Redevelopment Project in Shanghai

ABSTRACT:Urban redevelopment in China has experienced great transformation. Government-backed redevelopment has been replaced by privately funded and property-led redevelopment. This article discerns the impetus of ongoing property-led redevelopment. A case study of the Xintiandi project in Shanghai reveals how property-led redevelopment actually works. Pro-growth coalitions between local government and developers are formed. Despite its role as capital provider, the private sector is still regulated by the government due to its negligible influence on local governance. The government controls the direction and pace of urban redevelopment through policy intervention, financial leverages, and governance of land leasing. Property-led redevelopment is driven by diverse motivations of different levels of the government, e.g. transforming urban land use functions, showing off the entrepreneurial capability of local government, and maximizing negotiated land benefits. Driven by profit seeking, some thriving urban neighborhoods are displaced by high-value property development, and suffer from uneven redevelopment.

Is History Repeating Itself?

This study compares urban renewal in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s with inner-city redevelopment in China since the late 1980s. It finds that both programs use government authority and subsidies to make large-scale private or quasi-private investment attractive in the name of ameliorating living conditions. Cautiously applying Logan and Molotch’s “growth coalition” concept to China, the authors assert that a “growth machine” has formed during China’s economic decentralization processes. Despite the similarities, America’s urban renewal was an ill-fated federal program in which the local government and downtown business interests cooperated to boost declining inner-cities that were competing with burgeoning suburbs. In contrast, China’s redevelopment has been propelled by emerging local elites using decentralized state power to pursue fast growth in rising real estate markets. Greater insights into urban redevelopment can be gleaned through this comparative analysis.

Residential relocation under market-oriented redevelopment: the process and outcomes in urban China

Residential displacement by urban regeneration in western economies and forced relocation in the Third World countries are contentious issues. This paper, based on a household survey in Shanghai, examines the process and outcomes of residential relocation under market-oriented urban redevelopment in China. The results show that commodification of the socialist tenancy right helped to initiate large-scale urban redevelopment. First, there has been a complicated process of negotiation during residential relocation, involving residents, development companies, and government agencies. The de facto right of public housing tenants is considered by a pragmatic attitude in urban redevelopment in the early years. Second, residential relocation is accompanied by the changes in housing tenure, housing conditions, and the improved built form of planned residential districts. Nevertheless, the social conflict has become intensified recently because the deepening of commodification began to favour property developers by constraining the compensation standard for relocated households.