Urban Governance Research Articles

A timespace of zero‐COVID in Southwest China: Building community, governing time

AbstractIn this article, I take the organization of universal COVID testing as a point of departure for understanding the lived experiences of China's zero‐COVID policy and look at “the Community” (shequ) as a dynamic interface between the state and urban residents during the liminal time of a global pandemic. Drawing on Bryant and Knight's notion of “vernacular timespace” (2019), I analyze the timespace of zero‐COVID as a state‐regulated future orientation interwoven with collective anticipation of crisis, bureaucratic temporal governance, and contestations over time as a form of agency in everyday life. Instead of assuming a unitary form of present‐future relationship that was homogeneous and unchallenged, I argue that the collective anticipation of a public health crisis was constantly shaped, managed, and contested throughout the processes of pandemic community building. This research hopes to enrich reflections on the interplays of time, power, and legitimacy in post‐pandemic urban governance.

Between Communes, Signorie and Papal Government: Public Palaces in the Papal State (Late 14th to Early 15th Centuries)

The takeover of the Papal State by the Pope himself during the 15th century brought an end to the domination of many powerful lordly families. Communal institutions were often reestablished, and controlled by a representative of the pope but just as the development of urban lordships had not seen the disappearance of communal institutions and their old public palaces, the arrival of the papal administration did not always lead to the construction of new buildings. Based on cases situated mainly in the two provinces of the Duchy of Spoleto and the March of Ancona, this article shows how different urban governments (both seigneurial and pontifical) of the late Trecento and early Quattrocento were able to use the buildings created by a power they were trying to replace or with which they had to collaborate for their own benefit. Communal palaces received special attention from the new rulers: they were part of urban identity and symbolized the idea of a government based on the consent of the people, necessary for the legitimacy of any kind of leadership.

Digitising the Physical: The Evolving Role of Collaboration Tools in Citizen Participatory Design Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic in Seoul

This case study investigates how the digital transformation of urban design governance following the COVID-19 outbreak has led to changes in approaches to citizen participatory design in Seoul, South Korea. Drawing on empirical data from the Seoul Citizen Design Bureau – an annual participatory program initiated by the Seoul Metropolitan Government since 2015 – and interviews with facilitators and participants, the study ethnographically examines the emergence of new local design actors amid unforeseen circumstances like the pandemic. The research sheds light on the diverse capacities and intermediary roles of digital collaboration tools such as ZoomTM and MuralTM, which not only enabled citizen involvement in design during the pandemic but also challenged established practices in institution-driven participatory design in Korea. By contextualising this analysis within a turbulent historical juncture, the study demonstrates the effectiveness of remote ethnography in uncovering the influence of “more-than-humans” in participatory design within the unique sociocultural setting of South Korea.

Simulating urban evolution by H-GIS and H-BIM: a temporal and spatial study of Pingjiang map

AbstractHistorical maps provide insights into the morphology, cultural, and political shifts of ancient societies. Pingjiang Map is one of the earliest comprehensive ancient Chinese maps, depicting the heritage water city of Suzhou. This study takes it as the subject to examine the temporal and spatial reconstructions of Suzhou city after its devastation in the Song-Jin wars during the twelfth–thirteenth centuries. It uses historical geographical information system (H-GIS) and historical building information management (H-BIM) to simulate Suzhou city in the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279) and the city’s subsequent modernization to the present. By comparing and contrasting Pingjiang Map, the Song dynasty Suzhou, and the current city in the configuration of clusters such as urban wall, canal, street, government and citadel, temple, and residential ward, we establish evolutionary links between Pingjiang Map and the city, providing insights to the mechanism underlying urban transformation. Through H-BIM, we conducted a temporal and spatial analysis of the twelfth–thirteenth centuries’ citadel of Suzhou, simulating the construction sequence of palatial artefacts. Our research argues that Pingjiang Map stele forged an imperial vision, serving both for documentation and planning. It encoded building information for the central government to manage post-war reconstruction. The research establishes the workflow of ‘SQS’—spatialization, quantitative analysis, and simulation—to investigate the evolution of imperial cities and their cartography.

Historicizing Latin American urban politics and governments

ABSTRACT Existing studies about the politics of southern cities, particularly Latin American cities, need to pay more attention to the political institutions behind urban governance. These institutions, additionally, were not created by design but are a product of intertwined historical processes. This article analyzes the main features and transformations of Latin American local governments, their politics, and governance, looked at from the angle of their historical formation. Mobilizing arguments from urban studies and political science usually developed apart, I start with the legacies of two intertwined historical processes—urbanization(s) and state formation(s)—to later observe their recent transformations since the recent return(s) to democracy. The reconstruction of these intertwined historical trajectories and of the effects of the present democratic period help to jointly explain the most important features of the politics of local governments in Latin America that influence their governance and actions—capacities, political grammars, actors, and coalitions—as well as their recent transformations.

Making the mos(s)t of nature? Cleantech, smart nature-based solutions, and the ‘rendering investable’ of urban moss

This article examines the ways in which ‘nature-based solutions’ (NBS) to urban environmental problems are contributing to a re-imagining of the forms and roles of vegetal life in cities. Specifically, we examine the versions of nature that are being produced within a subset of nature-based solutions described as ‘smart’ – that is, those involving the enrolment of non-human lifeforms into digital infrastructures comprising sensors, data flows and automated support systems. Whilst NBS are often celebrated for opening up cities to lively ecological processes – thereby contributing to more convivial, ‘more-than-human’ forms of urbanism – their smart incarnations are becoming a playground for entrepreneurial and financial actors seeking new ways to enclose, commodify and derive profit from non-human life in cities. To explicate this argument, we examine the case of a proprietary ‘nature-based solution’ to urban air pollution developed and sold to local authorities and corporate actors by a European cleantech start-up, predicated on optimising the air-filtering capacities of moss. Our analysis proceeds in three stages. First, we draw on scholarship on the bioeconomy to show how the commodification of moss in this case is predicated on discursive arguments which depict moss as at once inherently productive and regenerative, but also fragile and scarce in urban environments. Secondly, we show how this smart NBS is rendered investable through the enrolment of moss into a carefully designed digital apparatus, which purports to stabilise and optimise its air purifying work, thereby making its contributions to urban air quality continuous, consistent and calculable. Finally, building on an assessment of the entanglement of this example with specific urban geographies and modes of urban governance, we critically reflect on the role that smart NBS in general might yet play in either reinforcing or disrupting prevailing dynamics of privatisation, enclosure and green gentrification in cities.

Everyday practices of administrative ambiguation and the labour of de-ambiguation: Struggling for water infrastructure in Mumbai

In this paper, we use the notion of administrative precarity to refer to the vulnerability and insecurity experienced by marginalised and disadvantaged groups as a result of their interactions with ambiguous administrative procedures. Using the example of water infrastructure administration in Mumbai, specifically the experiences of ‘Pani Haq Samiti’– the ‘Right to Water campaign’– we formulate how administrative precarity and infrastructural violence intersect in transcalar practices of ambiguation in urban governance. We build on a nascent set of literature that illustrates how ambiguity in administrative processes is used as a tactic to avoid or deny the impacts of bureaucratic process of water and sanitation governance in Mumbai. We work through several examples of the ambiguous practices and paperwork involved in implementing the universal right to water in urban Mumbai with a specific focus on the challenges in non-notified slums. We demonstrate that the practices of ambiguation, are often entrenched in everyday interactions between citizens or activists and administrators on the ground. In enabling the continued withholding of water infrastructure these ambiguous bureaucracies create an administrative precarity and are thus constitutive to persistent infrastructural violence against marginalised groups. We show that everyday practices of activists and administrators provoke the labours of de-ambiguation as a pre-requisite to the implementation of infrastructural solutions to achieve the ‘Right to Water’ under administrative precarity. We call for more research on everyday practices of (de-)ambiguation, including highlighting the potentially transformative role that urban scholarship may take to support the labour of de-ambiguation.

Are Medium-Sized Cities in China Shrinking from 2010 to 2020? An Empirical Analysis with a Multi-Dimensional Model

Urban shrinkage has emerged as a worldwide concern, which is increasingly prevalent in developing countries like China, particularly in medium-sized cities (MSCs). Compared to large cities and counties, MSCs find themselves in a national policy blind spot and have been neglected both in policy and research. Previous studies, based on population changes, have shown that urban shrinkage in China is not severe. However, urban shrinkage is not just about population decline, and it has not been adequately discussed from a multi-dimensional perspective. This paper adopts a multi-dimensional model, considering population, economy, and space dimensions to analyze shrinkage patterns in 164 MSCs in China from 2010 to 2020. Findings reveal that 6.1% of MSCs experienced population shrinkage, and 24.4% faced shrinkage in economic or spatial dimensions. Shrinking MSCs are spatially distributed in the Northeast as well as in the areas surrounding large cities. Industrial restructuring, job losses, and healthcare disparities contribute to urban shrinkage, and the impact of aging will be further felt. As large cities consistently attract population and resources and digitization has dramatically affected population mobility, more MSCs will shrink in the future. This paper contributes to the understanding of shrinkage of MSCs among scholars and policymakers, urging a shift towards more balanced and digital urban governance.

Digitally Driven Urban Governance: Framework and Evaluation in China

With the rapid development of digital technology, the role of digitalisation in urban governance continues to emerge. Building a theoretical analysis framework and evaluation system of digitally driven urban governance has important theoretical and practical significance for stimulating the efficiency of digital technology tools and improving the energy level of urban digital governance. This paper aims to explore the mechanism of urban governance enabled by digital technology, innovatively change the previous thinking mode that only attaches importance to facility construction and e-government platforms, adopt ecological thinking, and comprehensively consider the role of “soft elements” such as strategic support, industrial support, the security environment, talent support, and the market environment. Then, the extreme value variance method and the coefficient of variation method are used to calculate the overall capacity and secondary index scores of each city, and the standard deviation of secondary index scores is used to represent the sub-environmental balance of the cross-sectional data of China’s provinces. In order to further explore which indicators restrict the improvement of China’s urban digital governance capacity, this study also constructs an obstacle degree model. The results show the following: (1) The overall capability of China’s digitally driven urban governance is low, with a total score of 27.25, indicating that China’s digitally driven urban governance is in its infancy. (2) There is a significant development imbalance among Chinese provinces, with Beijing ranking first with a score of 81.16, and Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Heilongjiang, and Ningxia scoring less than 13.30 points, ranking as the bottom 5 among the 31 provinces. (3) The shortcomings of talent support, industrial support, and the security environment restrict the improvement of the entire digital ecological governance ability.

Assessing Buffer Gradient Synergies: Comparing Objective and Subjective Evaluations of Urban Park Ecosystem Services in Century Park, Shanghai

Urban parks provide essential ecosystem services (ESs) that enhance human wellbeing. However, discrepancies often arise between objective assessments of these services and stakeholders’ subjective perceptions. This study addresses a research gap concerning the synergies and tradeoffs between objective evaluations and subjective perceptions of key ecosystem services across various spatial scales. We investigated six key ecosystem services in Century Park, Shanghai, across seven buffer radii (8–100 m). Objective data were obtained from park view images (PVIs) and spatial analysis, while subjective perceptions were gathered through a scoring survey of 33 stakeholders. The key finding is that a buffer radius of 35 m offers optimal synergy between objective and subjective assessments for most ESs, particularly in pollution mediation, temperature regulation, and cultural services. Professionals showed stronger alignment in regulatory services like pollution mediation and temperature regulation, while residents exhibited higher synergy in net primary production (NPP) beyond a 75 m radius. Notably, cultural services displayed nuanced differences, with professionals preferring simpler landscapes and residents demonstrating varied aesthetic preferences. These findings emphasize the importance of integrating objective data and human perceptions in urban green space planning and governance. By incorporating diverse stakeholders and identifying optimal buffer zones, planners and designers can effectively balance ESs with human experiences. This approach ultimately fosters more sustainable and wellbeing-centered urban environments.

Smart Cities, Digital Inequalities, and the Challenge of Inclusion

While cities on a global scale embrace smartness as a roadmap for efficient urban governance, disparities persist in the domain of digital accessibility, literacy, and skills, with manifestations of digital exclusion, ageism, and ableism prevalent in most digital urban experiences. Despite their commitment to bridging the digital divide, governments lack comprehensive frameworks to inform policymaking and action for inclusion in smart cities. This review paper aims to deepen the understanding of the multifaceted challenges confronting the governance of inclusion in smart cities. Drawing from a review of research encompassing digital inclusion, digital transitions, smart cities, and urban governance, we discuss who is included and excluded in the governance of smart cities; what are the necessary conditions to be met for smart cities to be considered inclusive; and how can smart city governance deliver public value and equal benefits for all. As a novel contribution, this paper outlines a reflective framework to inform citizen inclusion in the governance of smart cities. This framework is meant to act as a starting point in the design of inclusive digital urban policies, and can also be employed to assess the directions taken to date in public organizations towards more inclusive urban practices.

Policy insights on the migration-sustainability nexus for urban governance.

Policy insights on the migration-sustainability nexus for urban governance.

Urban design leadership: Part 2, the case of public architects

AbstractThis paper, in two parts, explores the styles and application of urban design leadership as a dimension of urban design governance. This second part takes the theoretical framework for understanding urban design leadership developed in Part 1 and applies the theory to the varied practices of public architects across Europe. Based on interviews with protagonists involved in the delivery of these roles, the paper teases out how these functions can be understood in terms of leadership. Ultimately, urban design leadership is not a simple thing that should be replicated according to a standard formula from place to place. Instead, as the case of public architects demonstrates, in different ways that relate to opportunities provided by local governance and political traditions, such roles demonstrate the value of urban design as a form of design leadership at the urban scale. Their analysis also demonstrates the value of the framework advanced in Part 1, which proves to be a robust means to interrogate forms and episodes of urban design leadership. It provides a starting point for a research agenda that is ripe for further investigation.

Alternative micro-regeneration strategies for urban villages in China? Social entrepreneurship-based artistic intervention in Aohu Village in Shenzhen

Recent shifts in China’s urban village regeneration strategies have transitioned from comprehensive, large-scale redevelopment to nuanced, incremental micro-regenerations, incorporating artistic interventions as a dynamic mechanism for fostering urban governance innovation. This paper examines the transformative impact of social entrepreneurship based artistic intervention within the micro-regeneration of urban villages, particularly through a case study of Aohu Village in Shenzhen. It highlights how a local artist and villager catalyzed the village’s bottom-up regeneration by mobilizing his social networks to attract artists and organize art events, significantly boosting Aohu Art Village’s profile and contributing to social innovation. This approach not only drew attention from local government but also demonstrated the potent influence of artistic intervention on neighborhood regeneration and local governance. Unlike conventional, top-down planned art villages, Aohu retains its original community fabric through community-led regeneration while also addressing challenges such as rising rents and potential displacement of artists. The case study of Aohu Art Village illustrates the critical role of social entrepreneurship in urban village regeneration, emphasizing the necessity of a balanced understanding of artistic intervention, community engagement, and sustainable urban regeneration in China’s evolving urban landscape.

Perceptions about hypertension in an urban population in Pakistan

Background: As the risk factors and prevalence of hypertension continue to increase in Pakistan, it is imperative to understand the perceptions of patients about its prevention, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and management to inform the design of programmes to improve management. Objective: To explore patients’ perceptions about the treatment, management and control of hypertension in an urban population in Pakistan. Methods: Using a semi-structured questionnaire, we conducted one-on-one interviews with 30 hypertensive patients at 2 urban government tertiary care hospitals in Lahore and Sargodha. The patients were aged 35–70 years, diagnosed with hypertension by a registered medical doctor, and being treated with anti-hypertensive medication. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using Quirkos. Results: Almost all the patients recognized the potential long-term consequences of hypertension. Most of them said regular use of prescribed medication was beneficial, including for blood pressure control and relief of symptoms. They understood the benefits of lifestyle modification, such as engaging in physical activity, for the management of blood pressure. They however had inadequate knowledge of their treatment regimens; some of them took their medications irregularly, while some took them only when they felt symptoms. Most patients relied solely on medical management. Conclusion: We identified major challenges with the management of hypertension among the study population. Patients and caregivers relied mostly on medical management, with insufficient follow-up after initiating treatment. There is a need to improve patient follow-up and provide better patient education on the benefits of adhering to treatment regimens and adopting lifestyle changes including dietary and exercise management.

Cultural Transformation and Occupational Shifts among the Gujjar Tribe: An Analytical Study

The study explores the cultural transformation and occupational shifts among the Gujjar tribe in Rajouri District, Jammu and Kashmir. Historically pastoralists, the Gujjars have transitioned into new economic activities due to modernization, urbanization, and changing government policies. Educational advancements and emerging economic opportunities have led many within the tribe to diversify beyond livestock rearing into fields like agriculture, business, and public service. These shifts have redefined family structures, gender roles, and community dynamics, with women increasingly participating in the workforce. But, challenges such as cultural dislocation and loss of land rights persist. The study, based on qualitative research, highlights the complexities of adapting to modernity while preserving cultural identity, offering insights into how the Gujjars navigate the tension between tradition and modern change. The findings underscore the importance of sustainable development strategies that respect both cultural heritage and economic progress.

Has urban expansion alleviated working-residential spaces segregation across inner-outer cities? A multi-scale study with location-based social bigdata

Working-residential spaces segregation has become a pressing issue, exacerbated by the unequal allocation of spatial and social resources within contemporary metropolitans. However, limited research has delved into working-residential spaces segregation through the lens of urban space allocation, and few studies have investigated the interplay between policy and spatial segregation within urban expansion. To deepen our understanding of the triad relationship among government, residents, and spaces in the urbanization process, it is essential to promote the rational allocation of spatial resources, mitigate the conflict between working-residential spaces, and bolster the government's socialized governance and sustainable regulation. Therefore, this study takes Chengdu as a case to identify working-residential spaces, and categorize working-residential spaces segregation into nine types, analyzing the segregation of its spatial functions and working-residential spaces segregation. Results show that spaces segregation varies considerably between inner-outer cities, and that urban expansion of outer cities has not alleviated working-residential spaces segregation. In terms of spatial distribution, the inner cities have a large number of residential spaces, while working spaces are located in the west and south sides of the outer cities. In terms of work-residential spaces segregation, the segregation is much more severe in the outer cities than in the inner cities, especially in the government-planned high-tech zone and new districts, which show extremely severe spatial segregation. Critically, the study challenges the efficacy of constructing new districts in resolving urban segregation. It contributes valuable insights into comprehending urban spatial equity and justice through the lens of urban spaces, offering a reference point for the enhancement of urban social governance.

Mental health effects of government transfer payments in urban China—An empirical study based on CFPS panel data

BackgroundGovernment transfer payments play a crucial role in redistributing wealth and alleviating relative poverty. However, the mental health effects of government transfers remain to be explored. This study aims to explore the internal mechanisms of the mental health effects of government transfer payments by examining individuals' subjective evaluations and attitudes. MethodsBased on panel data from the 2016 and 2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) urban sample composition (N = 6645), the PSM-DID model was used to investigate the mental health effects of government transfer payments. Based on the calculation of the PSM-DID model, this study examined the effects of social security satisfaction and subjective social status on the mental health effects of government transfer payments through the mediation model and moderation model. ResultsThe study found that, overall, receiving government transfer payments can significantly reduce the level of individual depression. In examining the mechanism linking government transfer payments and mental health, it was discovered that social security satisfaction partially mediates this relationship. Additionally, subjective social status was identified as a negative moderating factor in this relationship, meaning that the alleviating effect of government transfer payments on depression diminishes as subjective social status increases. ConclusionsTherefore, in future policy optimization, firstly, the size and scope of urban government transfer payments should be expanded to directly improve the living standards of recipients. Secondly, social security programs should be strengthened. Thirdly, implementing the targeted interventions to address disparities in subjective social status should be considered.

China’s Urban Regeneration Evolution from 1949 to 2022: From the Perspective of Governance Mode

Urban regeneration has played an important role in Chinese successful urban economic development and is constantly evolving along with the changes in the demands of urban development. However, there have been relatively few studies on urban regeneration evolution. In order to explore the relationship between the evolution of urban regeneration and urban development in China, this paper divides China’s urban regeneration into four stages from the perspective of governance mode, namely, unitary governance, binary governance, tripartite governance, and pluralistic co-governance. It is found that the evolution of urban regeneration is closely related to the core contradictions in the process of urban development, and the development challenges at each period are often caused by the urban regeneration governance mode in the pervious phase. The evolution of urban development and urban regeneration governance mode presents the phenomenon of interaction. Based on the understanding of urban regeneration evolution, this study points out the problems that need to be solved in China’s urban regeneration in the future with suggestions, and the hope is that this study can provide experiences for the urban regeneration development of other developing countries.

Smart ignorance: Instrumentalising useful unknowns to bureaucratise and rescale power in the city

Critical geography inextricably associates smart cities with modalities of entrepreneurial governance, the privatisation of government assets and functions, and an effectively diminished role of the state in urban governance. In this article, I argue that this is an incomplete examination of ‘actually existing smart cities’ as it overlooks the bureaucratisation of city government through rescaling, which occurs via the instrumentalisation of ambiguity and ignorance. Furthermore, the existing literature focuses on the rescaling of power in ‘spaces of exception’ or enclave developments, but does not adequately address what happens when these corporate parastatal entities land in ‘actually existing’ cities where urban spatialities and political geographies are alreacy established and do not need to be formulated afresh. I draw on rich qualitative research in one case study of an ‘actually existing’ smart city – Pune in western India – to explore how the implementation of a smart cities programme results in a bureaucratisation of city government through existing useful unknowns, and generates further ambiguity around issues of authority and power in city government. This article offers a significant conceptual contribution to the understudied political geographies of city government by moving beyond the examination of zones of exception and investigating the dynamics of integrating privatised governance mechanisms into a historical ‘actually existing smart city’ with a formalised city government dating back to the late 19th century.