Urban Transformation In China Research Articles

Property Rights and Urban Transformation in China by ZhuQian, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2022, ix + 229 pp.

The Developing EconomiesEarly View Book Review Property Rights and Urban Transformation in China by Zhu Qian, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2022, ix + 229 pp. Zheng Wang, Zheng Wang King's College London, London, UKSearch for more papers by this author Zheng Wang, Zheng Wang King's College London, London, UKSearch for more papers by this author First published: 11 April 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/deve.12352Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. Early ViewOnline Version of Record before inclusion in an issue RelatedInformation

Experimental state rescaling, goal-oriented governance, and urban transformation in China: The case of Lanzhou

This study views decentralization and centralization as complementary strategies for balancing state control and local autonomy, with the goal of exploring effective governance under authoritarian regimes. We examine the governance framework the central government employs to balance “encouraging local autonomy” and “protecting the centrality of regulation,” analyzing urban development and the central-local interaction under this governance framework. We believe that goal-oriented governance with information transmission at its core is the key to reaching such equilibrium, accompanied by two critical governance techniques: hierarchical planning systems and decentralized experimentation. The hierarchical planning system, with the auxiliary evaluation mechanism, passes down national goals and provides administrative guidance to local governors. Meanwhile, the procedural and experimental nature of plan formation has encouraged local policy innovation and bottom-up information feedback. Under goal-oriented governance and manageable experimentation, urban development decisions are formulated, and urban transformation takes place. The study deepens our understanding of the tentative nature of China's state rescaling, i.e., the search for a balance between state control and local autonomy to defuse governance problems at a given time. It also broadens our understanding of China’s policy-making and urban governance as a wavering multi-level interaction rather than a dichotomous process of centralization and decentralization.

Urban functional transformation in (de)industrializing China: The heterogeneous roles of state and market

AbstractChina has experienced great economic transition and structural changes since reform and opening‐up, accompanying an unprecedented urban transformation under dramatic (de)industrialization. Previous studies have addressed the roles of state and market and their interaction in (de)industrialization and urban transformation of post‐reform China. However, few studies have given attention to the huge variations across regions and cities in their (de)industrialization stages, their main functions in urban systems of the country, and the critical issues facing them. This study examines the transformation process of different types of cities by employing the perspective of urban function evolution. Specifically, we analyze the spatial pattern of urban functional structure of China and its evolutionary features based on census employment data. Then, we focus on three major concerns of urban transformation in China, namely the multi‐stage and spatial gradient of (de)industrialization, the hierarchy and dynamics of central cities, and the transformation of resource‐dependent cities. Results indicate that the synergy of state and market forces promotes urban transformation in China and that their relative importance and mode of action vary across cities in different regions, stages, and functions. This research highlights an urban functional scope to understand the constant urban transformations in developing countries.

Beyond abstract space: Architectural experiments for dwelling and concrete utopia in urban China

Urban transformation in China is witnessing a diversification of architectural designs and the more prominent roles played by architects. Notably, recent architectural practices in urban and regional China have increasingly emphasised the social functions and uses of architecture – architecture is mobilised by many architects and their clients to promote public goods, social improvement and extra-economic purposes. The dialectic between material and social transformations constitutes the focus of this paper. To reconceptualise architecture as an active social intervention, this paper first delineates a theoretical outline that starts from Henri Lefebvre’s thesis on the alienation of everyday life and proliferation of abstract space in modern cities. We then engage with the notion of concrete utopia that highlights alternative urban spaces produced by architectural works, which do not radically transcend the dominant capitalist system but intervene into the current conditions by enriching and improving them incrementally. To illustrate this perspective, this paper develops a preliminary reading of two empirical cases based on second-hand materials collected from public media and social media, namely the Aranya project in Changli County, Hebei Province and the renovation project of a traditional house in central Shanghai.

Art as intervention: Protests on urban transformation in China and Australia

ABSTRACT Participation in public space is widely recognized as a means for deepening social inclusion. Recent developments in urban participation have seen an intertwining relationship between art, technology, and activism. This article presents a comparative study of two protests regarding the transformation of two public spaces: Donghu in Wuhan, China, and Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia. We aim to compare and contrast how art functions in the processes and results of the protests in each country’s socio-political contexts. Both possessing artistic and activist components, the Donghu protest played out as a disguised form of occupation that failed eventually. The case of Federation Square engaged with both artist activism and direct political engagement that ended in triumph for the activists. In both cases, art was mobilized to mediate a broader range of communications and prompt social change. The latter case took a relatively elitist approach than the former by relying on informed activists and working within a liberal democratic framework. Nonetheless, both protests showcase public agency and subjectivity despite different socio-political contexts. This paper argues that analyzing the role of art in urban protests can provide new insights into the esthetic modes of resistance in conflicts over the transformation of urban space.

The Unique Experience of China Revealed: Handbook on Transport and Urban Transformation in China

The Unique Experience of China Revealed: Handbook on Transport and Urban Transformation in China

From regional society to migrant society: a study on urban transformation in China

This paper considers the process of the change in Chinese society—in which its people went from being regional to being migrant in urban communities—and recognizes urban transformation as being based on and an expression of cultural transformation. The transformation of urban communities accompanied the “migration era,” and China’s urban communities, in fact, have been gradually changing from a relatively closed regional society to a diverse and civilized migrant one. The diversification of migrants has caused many problems for cities during their transition, affecting such aspects of social life as the equal enjoyment of public resources, the changes in family and kinship, regional discrimination, the complexity of interpersonal and ethnic relations, etc. The related topics are worthy of further discussion.

Spatial characteristics of urban life resilience from the perspective of supply and demand: A case study of Nanjing, China

The study of urban life resilience from the perspective of supply and demand and supported by spatial big data is an innovative attempt to investigate traditional related research topics, ideas and methods. On the basis of interpreting the connotation of resilience behind the main contradictions and urban transformation in China at present and introducing the perspective of supply and demand to shape the analysis framework of urban life resilience, this study takes Nanjing as a typical case to study the spatial characteristics of urban life resilience and proposes pertinent adjustment strategies with support from spatial big data. Results show the following. (1) Spatial differentiation among urban livelihood, activity and comprehensive life resilience is significant and presents a ‘centre-periphery’ spatial structure with different gradients that show increasing and decreasing trends. (2) Urban livelihood and activity resilience mainly show low-high spatial negative autocorrelation characteristics. Residents in central urban areas are more likely than others to pursue activity resilience, due to agglomeration, whereas residents in towns outside central urban areas are not greatly affected by urban life resilience due to the low level of population agglomeration. (3) The agglomeration characteristics of coupling coordination level are not significant as the distribution of low-level coupling coordination areas is mixed, with only the coupling coordination level of peripheral towns being slightly high. The strategy of improving urban life resilience should focus on priority, pertinence, cross-regional dynamic guidance, coordinated governance of related urban problems and the impact of new science and technology and urban development concepts.

Exploring the relationship between urbanization and urban eco-efficiency: Evidence from prefecture-level cities in China

Abstract The rapid development of urbanization has had a dramatic impact on the ecological environment in China. In this paper, we first measure the urban eco-efficiency of 281 prefecture-level cities in China during 2006–2013 using the super-efficiency data envelopment analysis (SEDEA) model. We then propose a new comprehensive index system to assess urbanization. Finally, we quantitatively explore the relationship between urbanization and urban eco-efficiency based on a spatial econometric analysis. The results showed that China's average urban eco-efficiency and comprehensive level of urbanization of 281 prefecture-level cities had shown increase during 2006–2013. However, distinct spatial disparities exist among different cities. China's urbanization has significant characteristics of spatial agglomeration and spatial convergence during 2006–2013, with a high-to-low spatial distribution from eastern China to western China. Spatial effects play an important role in the changes of urban eco-efficiency in China through spatial spillover effects and regional replication and competition. Evidence from spatial econometric analysis reveals that an N-shaped relationship exists between urbanization and urban eco-efficiency, indicating that with the improvement of urbanization, urban eco-efficiency first increases, then declines and then increases again. The improvement of the level of technology and the formulation of effective environmental policies will promote the increase in urban eco-efficiency. The results provide significant references for urban ecological management and sustainable urban transformation in China.

Spatial Impacts of High-Speed Rail on Urban Transformation in China: Evidence from Land Value Change

Spatial Impacts of High-Speed Rail on Urban Transformation in China: Evidence from Land Value Change

Economic transition and urban transformation of China: The interplay of the state and the market

The transition of the Chinese economy from plan to market has led to dramatic economic restructuring and urban transformation since the economic reforms and open door policy in 1978. The state and the market, which are the two basic regulating mechanisms, have significantly changed their role in economic and urban development in this transition in China. We attempt to examine the interplay of the state and the market in facilitating economic growth and producing ‘new’ urban space after replacing socialism with state capitalism. Four major waves of urbanisation and urban development have been identified, in terms of the interaction of the state and the market in producing different forms of urban development which also bring about economic transition in China. We further examine the new form of urban development in the fourth stage of urbanisation which is represented by the rapid growth of producer services and the resulting development of central business districts. Economic transition and urban transformation in China seem to converge with the development pattern of developed and other developing countries. However, embedded in a different state–market interplay, the experience of Chinese cities may be different and not be easily imitated by cities in other developing countries.

Urban revolution and Chinese contemporary art: A total revolution of the senses

Urban transformation in China has been hailed as a revolution. The pace and scale of change as well as the grand narrative of transformation have been characterized in terms of superlatives – the tallest skyscrapers, the largest shopping malls, the longest bridges and highways, the fastest trains – testifying to the teleology and progress of China’s dream of prosperity. However, behind the sleek and glittering façade lies a story of exclusion, violence, dispossession, and destruction – the ruins of a civilization. This article engages with this side of the story by exploring the dialectic between urban transformation and the parallel development of the visual arts, which has created new regimes of visibility and new hierarchies of representation. In new and large cities alike, the visual arts have been manifesting affections that permeate the contemporary world, creating new possibilities for ‘distributing the sensible’. This article focuses on the artworks produced by Zhang Dali, Dai Guangyu and Jin Feng, whose subject matter involves common people, and it engages with three crucial discursive formations: violence, socio-economic inequality, and utopian dreams. These artists are producing a ‘history from below’ (to borrow E. P. Thompson’s expression): rescuing the common people from ‘the enormous condescension of posterity’. They are making ordinary people assume the importance of the extraordinary. From the point of view of aesthetics, they are enacting a total revolution of the senses and, in Rancière’s words, making ‘heard as speakers those who had been perceived as mere noisy animals’.

A theoretical framework and methodology for urban activity spatial structure in e-society: Empirical evidence for Nanjing City, China

The existing researches on the influence of information and communication technology (ICT) are mainly focused on human activity, whilst with few efforts on urban space. In the e-society, the widespread adoption of ICT devices not only affects almost every aspect of people’s daily life and thereby reshapes the spatial development of regions and cities, but also generates a large amount of real-time activity data with location information. These georeferenced data, however, have relatively recently attracted attention from geographers. Adapted from Lynch’s framework based on people’s perceptions, this paper proposes a framework of urban spatial structure based on people’s actual activity, including five elements, namely activity path, activity node, central activity zone (CAZ), activity district, and activity edge. In the empirical study, by using one week’s check-in tweets (from February 25 to March 3 in 2013) collected in Nanjing City, the five elements are recognized and analyzed. Through the comparison between our results and urban spatial structure based on population (and land use), we argue that ICT uses: 1) lead to polarize, rather than to smooth, the urban structural hierarchy, due to the dual role of distance; 2) enable a partial decoupling of activity and activity space node, which challenges our conventional understanding of the role of home and the utility of travel; 3) blur the boundaries of activity districts and hence may play a positive role in enriching districts’ functions, which should not be overlooked in the current urban transformation in China.

The downside of marketization: A multilevel analysis of housing tenure and types in reform-era urban China

Based on data from the 2005 National Population Sample Survey and compiled covariates of 205 prefectures, this research adopted principal-component and multilevel-logistic analyses to study homeownership in urban China. Although the housing reform has severed the link between work units and residence, working in state sectors (government, state-owned enterprises and collective firms) remained significant in determining a household’s entitlement to reform-era housing with heavy subsidies or better qualities. While the prefecture-level index of marketization reduced local homeownership of self-built housing, affordable housing and privatized housing, its effect is moderated by cross-level interactions with income, education and working in state sectors across different types of housing. Meanwhile, the index of political and market connections promoted all types of homeownership except for self-built housing. By situating the downside of marketization within a context of urban transformation, this research not only challenges the teleological premise of the neoliberal market transition theory but calls for research on institutional dynamics and social consequences of urban transformation in China.

High-Speed Rail and Urban Transformation in China:The Case of Hangzhou East Rail Station

China has impressed the rest of the world with the huge scale and speed of implementation of its high-speed rail (HSR) network, which is expected to reshape the country’s economic geography and assist the rapid urbanization and industrialization process. However, the current practice, i.e. suburbanization of HSR stations with new town development, large-scale and airport-style HSR stations, has given rise to a series of critical issues. This paper reviews the background and highlights the features commonly shared by most newly developed HSR stations. A case study of Hangzhou East Rail station (HERS) is presented to reveal four key issues: intercity accessibility, intra-urban accessibility, new town development, and social segregation. Four recommendations arise from the issues discussed in the paper, namely the need for a prospective vista of the future on the relationship between transport accessibility and urban development over the long-term; a practical design philosophy based on reasonable consumption of resources and well-integrated station space and circulation; a proposed loop line to improve the accessibility to and from HERS so as to serve the polycentric urban centres in Hangzhou better; and widening the participation, cooperation, and dialogue among the various stakeholders during the decision-making process.

Restructuring for growth in urban China: Transitional institutions, urban development, and spatial transformation

This research examines government policies and urban transformation in China through a study of Hangzhou City, which is undergoing dramatic growth and restructuring. As the southern center of the Yangtze River Delta, an emerging global city region of China, Hangzhou has been restlessly searching for strategies to promote economic growth and survive the competition with Shanghai. This paper analyzes Hangzhou’s development strategies, including globalization, tourism, industrial development, and urban development, in the context of shifting macro conditions and local responses. We hold that urban policies in China are situated in the broad economic restructuring and the gradual, experiential national reform and are therefore transitional. The paper suggests that China’s urban policies are state institution-directed, growth-oriented, and land-based, imposing unprecedented challenges to sustainability and livability. Land development and spatial restructuring are central to urban policies in China. Last, while Hangzhou’s development strategies and policies to some extent reflect policy convergence across cities in China, local/spatial contexts, including local settings, territorial rescaling and land conditions, are underlying the functioning of development/entrepreneurial states.

From Local Experiments to National Policy: The Origins of China's Distinctive Policy Process

China's national policy formulation undergone economic transformation and shaped the making of policies in promotion of private business and stock market regulation. China's distinctive process of central-local interaction in policy generation is one of its core strengths in reforming its economy.

Tempo-Spatial Patterns of Land Use Changes and Urban Development in Globalizing China: A Study of Beijing.

This study examines the temporal and spatial changes in land use as aconsequence of rapid urban development in the city of Beijing. Using a combination oftechniques of remote sensing and GIS, the study identifies a substantial loss of plaindryland and a phenomenal expansion of urban construction land over the recent decade.Geographically, there is a clear shifting of urban construction land from the inner city tothe outskirts as a consequence of suburbanization. The outward expansion of the ring-roadsystem is found to be one of the most important driving forces explaining the temporal andspatial pattern of land use change. The uneven distribution of population stands as anotherfactor with significant correlation with land use change. The application of the techniquesof remote sensing and GIS can enhance the precision and comparability of research onland use change and urban transformation in China.

Book Review: Urban Transformation in China

Book Review: Urban Transformation in China