1st Edition
Governing Urban Development in China Critical Urban Studies
The book investigates urban development and governance in China and introduces China perspectives to the understanding of governing urban development in the 21st century.
Building upon a rich and burgeoning literature on China, the book explains major changes in governance, offers a well-synthesized account of state-centered governance, and provides in-depth discussions on urban governance, city and regional planning, financing and financialization, urban redevelopment, local economic development and innovation, and environmental governance. The book bridges theoretical concepts in critical urban studies and empirical research on China and thus depicts a fuller picture of changing and variegated urban governance in the contemporary world. The book theorizes Chinese urban governance from the ground up and derives a concept of state entrepreneurialism as a framework for narrating urban governance in China. Following this framework, each chapter begins with a brief introduction to key concepts in urban geography and then depicts the urban development process on the ground in China. Then, the chapters discuss these concepts and explanations because many are derived from a different context, often in Western economies. At the end of each chapter, the phenomenal urban changes are evaluated with their theoretical implications.
This book offers contextualized insights into critical geographical studies of urban governance and is the first essential complementary reading for both urban scholars and those exploring the geography of China. It will be of interest to students and researchers in Urban Geography, Urban Studies, Urban Planning, Sociology, Political Science, and China Studies. The book can also be complementary reading in China Studies, especially in governance and politics.
Introduction
1. Governance: theories and perspectives
2. State entrepreneurialism: historical formation and practices
3. Planning: state centrality and political mandates
4. Financialization: the long shadow of the state
5. Urban redevelopment: beyond the dynamics of the growth machine
6. Innovation: a hybrid ‘national indigenous’ model
7. Environment: the socio-ecological fix under ecological civilization
Conclusion
Biography
Fulong Wu is Bartlett Professor of Planning at University College London. He received his BSc and MSc from Nanjing University, and his PhD from the University of Hong Kong. He has taught previously at Southampton and Cardiff universities. In 2016, he was conferred the award of Fellow of Academy of Social Sciences in the UK. His research interests include urban development in China and its social and sustainable challenges. He is the author of Planning for Growth: Urban and Regional Planning in China (Routledge, 2015), Creating Chinese Urbanism: Urban Revolution and Governance Change (UCL Press, 2022), and co-editor (with Roger Keil) of After Suburbia: Urbanization in the 21st Century (2022). He is the principal investigator of a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant – Rethinking China’s Urban Governance.
Fangzhu Zhang is Professor of China Planning and joint coordinator for the China Planning Research Group in the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London (UCL), UK. Her main research interests focus on innovation and governance, environmental planning and eco-city development, urban financialization, and urban village redevelopment in China. She has been involved in several research projects funded by the British Academy, ESRC (UK), and the EU. She is a co-editor of Handbook on China’s Urban Environmental Governance. She is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Transactions in Planning and Urban Research. Currently, she is working on the ERC Advanced Grant research project—Rethinking China’s Urban Governance.
“This is a powerful and significant book. It provides a long overdue and comprehensive review of the Chinese urban experience and its governance, giving it the status it deserves. But, alongside its thought-provoking reflections on the Chinese case, what makes this book such an important contribution is the extent to which it moves beyond exceptionalism. It repositions Chinese urbanism in ways that highlight how learning from China is fundamental to developing a rounded understanding of urban change as a globalised phenomenon.” - Allan Cochrane, Emeritus Professor of Urban Studies, The Open University, UK.
"China's urban growth has been spectacular over the last 30 years and anyone interested in urbanisation needs to know about China. Fulong Wu and Fangzhu Zhang are both leading experts on urban China and in this valuable book they explore new forms of urbanization and urban governance developing the important idea of state entrepreneurialism to try to understand and explain the key role of the state in shaping urban development." - Chris Hamnett, Emeritus Professor, Department of Geography, King's College London, UK
"Against the backdrop of intensified geopolitical tension and deepening political/ideological divides across the globe, Wu and Zhang’s new book makes a timely and ground-breaking contribution to closing the gaps existing between a peculiar urban China and the intrigued international community. Effectively bridging blue-sky research with grounded practices of planning and policy-making, the book provides an inspiring, provocative, and illuminating (re)interpretation of urban governance with Chinese ingredients to push the frontiers of theoretical advancements in post-millennial critical urban studies. An amazing exemplar of impactful research that shall cast a long shadow over scholarly enquiries into the changing dynamics and diverse pathways of urban governance in China and beyond." - George C.S. Lin, Chair Professor of Geography, University of Hong Kong
"This richly informed account brings to light the varied experience of China’s urban development across time and geography, through a useful framework of analysis – state entrepreneurialism, a market-enabled institutional fix. The book recognizes the critical role of local politics and power dynamics, offering empirically grounded theorization about urban governance. A must-read for anyone interested in urban and China studies." Weiping Wu, Professor of Urban Planning, Columbia University, USA
"Fulong Wu and Fangzhu Zhang have produced the most thorough exploration to date of China’s urban governance and development. A deeply thoughtful book that probes the historical interplay of neoliberalism, state entrepreneurialism and capital accumulation and draws on – as well as contributes to – the traditions of both urban studies and China studies" Jane Duckett, Edward Caird Chair of Politics, University of Glasgow
