DOI:
Suburban Development and Governance in China

Wu Fulong, Shen Jie

Keywords: Suburbanization; Suburban Development; Suburban Governance; Chinese Cities

Abstract:

Rather than seeing Chinese “suburbs” as following and replicating the process of middle-class suburbanization in the Western economies, in keeping with the focus of this section on “emerging modalities” in the Global South, we investigates the question of governance in China’s suburbanization process. The paper first adopts a historical perspective, viewing Chinese suburbs in terms of the various political-economic stages they have gone through. It then discusses various modalities of contemporary suburban governance. This is followed by an analysis of different types of development – both formal and informal – and their respective spatial forms and governance issues. While fragmented spatial forms in the suburbs represent different combinations of modalities, a ’coherent logic’ of territorial development is underlying these forms.


Funds:

Brief Info of Author(s):

References:
  • [1] Harris R, Larkham P. Suburban Foundation, Form and Function[M] //

    Harris R, Larkham P, eds. Changing Suburbs: Foundation, Form and

    Function. London: E & FN Spon; New York: Routledge, 1999.

    [2] Logan J, Molotch H. Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place[J].

    Blackwell City Reader, 1987.

    [3] Phelps N A, Wood A M, Valler D C. A Postsuburban World? An Outline of

    a Research Agenda[J]. Environment & Planning A Abstract, 2010, 42(2):

    366-383.

    [4] Ekers M, Hamel P, Keil R. Governing Suburbia: Modalities and

    Mechanisms of Suburban Governance[J]. Regional Studies, 2012, 46(3):

    405-422.

    [5] Mcgee T G, Robinson I M. The Mega-urban Regions of Southeast Asia[J].

    Urbanization in Asia, 1995.

    [6] Fleischer F. Suburban Beijing[M]. University of Minnesota Press, 2010:

    256.

    [7] Harris R. Meaningful Types in a World of Suburbs[J]. Clapson M,

    Hutchison R, eds. Suburbanization in Global Society, Research in Urban

    Sociology 10. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2010: 15-47.

    [8] Zhou Y, Logan J R. Growth on the Edge: The New Chinese Metropolis[M] //

    Logan J R. Urban China in Transition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2008:

    140-160.

    [9] Wu F. Neo-urbanism in the Making Under China’s Market Transition[J].

    City Analysis of Urban Trends Culture Theory Policy Action, 2009, 13(4):

    418-431.

    [10] Kam Wing Chan. The Chinese Hukou System at 50[J]. Eurasian Geography &

    Economics, 2009, 50(2): 197-221.

    [11] Zhou Y, Ma L J C. Economic Restructuring and Suburbanization in

    China[J]. Urban Geography, 2000, 21(3): 205-236.

    [12] Feng J, Zhou Y. Suburbanization and the Changes of Urban Internal Spatial

    Structure in Hangzhou, China[J]. Urban Geography, 2005, 26(2): 107-136.

    [13] Feng J, Wang F, Zhou Y. The Spatial Restructuring of Population in

    Metropolitan Beijing: Toward Polycentricity in the Post-Reform ERA[J].

    Urban Geography, 2013, 30(7): 779-802.

    [14] Wu F. Residential Relocation Under Market-oriented Redevelopment: The

    Process and Outcomes in Urban China[J]. Geoforum, 2004, 35(4): 453-470.

    [15] George C S, Lin, Fangxin Yi. Urbanization of Capital or Capitalization on

    Urban Land? Land Development and Local Public Finance in Urbanizing

    China[J]. Urban Geography, 2011, 32(1): 50-79.

    [16] Wu F, He S, Webster C. Path Dependency and the Neighbourhood Effect:

    Urban Poverty in Impoverished Neighbourhoods in Chinese Cities[J].

    Environment & Planning A Abstract, 2010, 42(1): 134-152.

    [17] Deng F F, Huang Y. Uneven Land Reform and Urban Sprawl in China: The

    Case of Beijing[J]. Progress in Planning, 2004, 61(1): 211-236.

    [18] Wu F, Zhang J. Planning the Competitive City-Region: The Emergence of

    Strategic Development Plan in China[J]. Urban Affairs Review, 2007, 42:

    714-740.

    [19] Cervero R, Day J. Suburbanization and Transit-oriented Development in

    China[J]. Transport Policy, 2008, 15(5): 315-323.

    [20] Wong S W, Tang B S. Challenges to the Sustainability of “Development

    Zones”: A Case Study of Guangzhou Development District, China[J].

    Cities, 2005, 22(4): 303-316.

    [21] Wang L, Kundu R, Chen X. Building for What and Whom? New Town

    Development as Planned Suburbanization in China and India[J]. Hutchison

    R, ed. Research in Urban Sociology, 2010, 10: 319-345.

    [22] Shen J, Wu F. The Development of Master-Planned Communities in

    Chinese Suburbs: A Case Study of Shanghai’s Thames Town[J]. Urban

    Geography, 2012, 33(2): 183-203.

    [23] Wu F. Gated and Packaged Suburbia: Packaging and Branding Chinese

    Suburban Residential Development[J]. Cities, 2010, 27(5): 385-396.

    [24] Wu F, Phelps N A. (Post)suburban Development and State Entrepreneurialism

    in Beijing’s Outer Suburbs[J]. Environment & Planning A, 2011, 43(2):

    410-430.

    [25] Wu F, Phelps N A. From Suburbia to Post-Suburbia in China? Aspects of

    the Transformation of the Beijing and Shanghai Global City Regions[J].

    Built Environment, 2008, 34(4): 464-481.

    [26] Phelps N A, Wu F, eds. International Perspectives on Suburbanization: A

    Post-Suburban World?[M]. Basingstoke, Hants: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

    [27] Harris R. Creeping Conformity: How Canada Became Suburban, 1900–

    1960[M]. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.

    [28] Zhu J, Hu T. Disordered Land Rent Competition in China’s Peri-

    Urbanization[J]. Social Science Electronic Publishing, 2008, 41(7): 1629-

    1646.

    [29] Wu F. Urbanization[M] // Tay W, So AY, eds. Handbook of Contemporary

    China. World Scientific Publishing, 2012.

    [30] Haila A. The Market as the New Emperor[J]. International Journal of

    Urban and Regional Research, 2007, 31(1): 3-20

    [31] Xu J, Yeh A, Wu F. Land Commodification: New Land Development and

    Politics in China Since the Late 1990s[J]. International Journal of Urban &

    Regional Research, 2009, 33(4): 890-913.

    [32] Tao R, Su F, Liu M, et al. Land Leasing and Local Public Finance in

    China’s Regional Development: Evidence from Prefecture-level Cities[J].

    Urban Studies, 2010, 47(10): 2217-2236.

    [33] Lin, George C S. Reproducing Spaces of Chinese Urbanisation: New Citybased

    and Land-centred Urban Transformation[J]. Urban Studies, 2007,

    44(9): 1827-1855.

    [34] Wu F, Xu J, Yeh A. Urban Development in Post-reform China: State,

    Market, and Space[M]. Routledge, 2007: 1295-1297.

    [35] Webster C, Wu F, Zhao Y. China’s Modern Gated Cities[M] // G Glasze,

    C Webster, K Frantz, eds. Private Cities: Global and Local Perspectives.

    London and New York: Routledge, 2006: 153-169.

    [36] Huang Y, Low S M. Is Gating Always Exclusionary? A Comparative

    Analysis of Gated Communities in American and Chinese Cities[M] //

    Logan J R, ed. Urban China in Transition. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2008:

    182-202.

    [37] Wu F. Rediscovering the ’Gate’ Under Market Transition: from Work-unit

    Compounds to Commodity Housing Enclaves[J]. Housing Studies, 2005,

    20(2): 235-254.

    [38] Webster C. Property Rights and the Public Realm: Gates, Green Belts, and

    Gemeinschaft[J]. Environment & Planning B, 2002, 29(3): 397-412.

    [39] Pow C P. Gated Communities in China: Class, Privilege and the Moral

    Politics of the Good Life[M]. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2009.

    [40] Low S M. Behind the Gates: Life, Security, and the Pursuit of Happiness in

    Fortress America[M]. Routledge, 2003: 601-602.

    [41] Knox P L. Metroburbia, USA[M]. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University

    Press, 2008.

    [42] Tomba L. Residential Space and Collective Interest Formation in Beijing’s

    Housing Disputes[J]. China Quarterly, 2005, 184(1): 934-951.

    [43] Harvey D. The Urban Process Under Capitalism: A Framework for

    Analysis[J]. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 1978,

    2(1-4): 101-131.

    [44] Walker R. A Theory of Suburbanization: Capitalism and the Production of

    Urban Space in the United States[M] // Dear M, Scott A J, eds. Urbanization

    and Urban Planning in Capitalist Society. New York: Methuen, 1981.

    [45] Cox K R. The Problem of Metropolitan Governance and the Politics of

    Scale[J]. Regional Studies, 2010, 44(2): 215-227.

    [46] Wu F, Zhang F, Webster C, et al. Informality and the Development and

    Demolition of Urban Villages in the Chinese Peri-urban Area[J]. Urban

    Studies, 2013, 50(10): 1919-1934.

    [47] Po L. Redefining Rural Collectives in China: Land Conversion and the

    Emergence of Rural Shareholding Co-operatives[J]. Urban Studies, 2008,

    45(8): 1603-1623.

    [48] Li X, Xu X, Li Z. Land Property Rights and Urbanization in China[J].

    China Review, 2010, 10(1), 11-37.

    [49] Wu F. Retreat from a Totalitarian Society: China’s Urbanism in the

    Making[J]. The New Blackwell Companion to the City, 2012: 701-712.


TOP 10