IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ijurrs/v39y2015i3p495-517.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘Eco’ For Whom? Envisioning Eco-urbanism in the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city, China

Author

Listed:
  • Federico Caprotti
  • Cecilia Springer
  • Nichola Harmer

Abstract

type="main"> Eco-cities have attracted international attention from governments, corporations, academics and other actors seeking to use sustainable urban planning to reduce urban environmental impacts. China has devoted significant political will and economic resources to the development of new-build eco-city projects, reflecting the Chinese government's goals to build a ‘harmonious society' in which environmental sustainability and social stability are mutually reinforcing. We critically analyse the case of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin eco-city to demonstrate that the eco-city's ecologically modernizing visions of eco-urbanism construct a protective environment for its residents that constrains broader consideration of social sustainability. Through analysis of the marketing and presentation of specific domestic and other spaces of the eco-city, we examine the application of ecologically modernizing construction and technology to the design of the city. We argue that the eco-city is discursively constructed as ecologically beneficial for its inhabitants rather than for the broader socio-environmental landscape. Our analysis of residential spaces in Tianjin eco-city introduces the question of what ‘eco’ means when considering the construction of eco-urban environments for the city's residents.

Suggested Citation

  • Federico Caprotti & Cecilia Springer & Nichola Harmer, 2015. "‘Eco’ For Whom? Envisioning Eco-urbanism in the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city, China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3), pages 495-517, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:39:y:2015:i:3:p:495-517
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/1468-2427.12233
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fulong Wu, 2003. "The (Post-) Socialist Entrepreneurial City as a State Project: Shanghai's Reglobalisation in Question," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 40(9), pages 1673-1698, August.
    2. Laurence Crot, 2013. "Planning for Sustainability in Non-democratic Polities: The Case of Masdar City," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(13), pages 2809-2825, October.
    3. Nicola Dempsey & Glen Bramley & Sinéad Power & Caroline Brown, 2011. "The social dimension of sustainable development: Defining urban social sustainability," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(5), pages 289-300, September.
    4. Lichtenberg, Erik & Ding, Chengri, 2009. "Local officials as land developers: Urban spatial expansion in China," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 57-64, July.
    5. Kennedy, Scott & Sgouridis, Sgouris, 2011. "Rigorous classification and carbon accounting principles for low and Zero Carbon Cities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 5259-5268, September.
    6. Simon Joss & Arthur P. Molella, 2013. "The Eco-City as Urban Technology: Perspectives on Caofeidian International Eco-City (China)," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 115-137, January.
    7. I-Chun Catherine Chang & Eric Sheppard, 2013. "China's Eco-Cities as Variegated-super-1 Urban Sustainability: Dongtan Eco-City and Chongming Eco-Island," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 57-75, January.
    8. Alana Boland, 2007. "The Trickle‐down Effect: Ideology and the Development of Premium Water Networks in China’s Cities," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 21-40, March.
    9. Ian R. Cook & Erik Swyngedouw, 2012. "Cities, Social Cohesion and the Environment: Towards a Future Research Agenda," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(9), pages 1959-1979, July.
    10. Federico Cugurullo, 2013. "How to Build a Sandcastle: An Analysis of the Genesis and Development of Masdar City," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 23-37, January.
    11. Coaffee, Jon, 2008. "Risk, resilience, and environmentally sustainable cities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 4633-4638, December.
    12. Malcolm Warner & Ying Zhu, 2010. "Labour and management in the People's Republic of China: seeking the ‘harmonious society’," Asia Pacific Business Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 285-298, July.
    13. Morris Low, 2013. "Eco-Cities in Japan: Past and Future," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 7-22, January.
    14. Ciumasu, Ioan M., 2013. "Dynamic decision trees for building resilience into future eco-cities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 80(9), pages 1804-1814.
    15. Andrew C. Inkpen & Wang Pien, 2006. "An Examination of Collaboration and Knowledge Transfer: China–Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 779-811, June.
    16. Sofia T. Shwayri, 2013. "A Model Korean Ubiquitous Eco-City? The Politics of Making Songdo," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 39-55, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chen-Yi Sun & Yen-An Chen & Xiuzhi Zhang, 2019. "Key Factors in the Success of Eco-Communities in Taiwan’s Countryside: The Role of Government, Partner, and Community Group," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-11, February.
    2. Changjie Zhan & Martin De Jong, 2017. "Financing Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City: What Lessons Can Be Drawn for Other Large-Scale Sustainable City-Projects?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-17, February.
    3. Martin de Jong, 2019. "From Eco-Civilization to City Branding: A Neo-Marxist Perspective of Sustainable Urbanization in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-14, October.
    4. Paul D. Mullins, 2017. "The Ubiquitous-Eco-City of Songdo: An Urban Systems Perspective on South Korea's Green City Approach," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 2(2), pages 4-12.
    5. Valeria Saiu, 2017. "The Three Pitfalls of Sustainable City: A Conceptual Framework for Evaluating the Theory-Practice Gap," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-23, December.
    6. Si-Ying Tan & Araz Taeihagh & Kritika Sha, 2021. "How Transboundary Learning Occurs: Case Study of the ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yigitcanlar, Tan & Lee, Sang Ho, 2014. "Korean ubiquitous-eco-city: A smart-sustainable urban form or a branding hoax?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 100-114.
    2. Carmen Antuña-Rozado & Justo García-Navarro & Pekka Huovila, 2019. "Challenges in Adapting Sustainable City Solutions from Finland to Different Contexts Worldwide: A Libyan Case Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-20, May.
    3. Farah Mneimneh & Issam Srour & Isam Kaysi & Mona Harb, 2017. "Eco-City Projects: Incorporating Sustainability Requirements during Pre-Project Planning," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 47-74, January.
    4. I-Chun Catherine Chang, 2017. "Failure matters: Reassembling eco-urbanism in a globalizing China," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(8), pages 1719-1742, August.
    5. Anna Hult, 2015. "The Circulation of Swedish Urban Sustainability Practices: To China and Back," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 47(3), pages 537-553, March.
    6. Margarida Rodrigues & Mário Franco, 2022. "Bibliometric review about eco-cites and urban sustainable development: trend topics," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(12), pages 13683-13704, December.
    7. Valeria Saiu, 2017. "The Three Pitfalls of Sustainable City: A Conceptual Framework for Evaluating the Theory-Practice Gap," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-23, December.
    8. Federico Cugurullo, 2016. "Urban eco-modernisation and the policy context of new eco-city projects: Where Masdar City fails and why," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(11), pages 2417-2433, August.
    9. Amir Reza Khavarian-Garmsir & Ayyoob Sharifi & Mohammad Hajian Hossein Abadi & Zahra Moradi, 2023. "From Garden City to 15-Minute City: A Historical Perspective and Critical Assessment," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-15, February.
    10. Marit Rosol & Vincent Béal & Samuel Mössner, 2017. "Greenest cities? The (post-)politics of new urban environmental regimes," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(8), pages 1710-1718, August.
    11. Kitchin, Rob & Cardullo, Paolo & Di Feliciantonio, Cesare, 2018. "Citizenship, Justice and the Right to the Smart City," SocArXiv b8aq5, Center for Open Science.
    12. Changjie Zhan & Martin De Jong, 2017. "Financing Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City: What Lessons Can Be Drawn for Other Large-Scale Sustainable City-Projects?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-17, February.
    13. Jooseok Oh & Minho Seo, 2021. "Measuring Citizens-Centric Smart City: Development and Validation of Ex-Post Evaluation Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-22, October.
    14. Hoang Linh Nguyen & Jin Duan & Guo Qin Zhang, 2018. "Land Politics under Market Socialism: The State, Land Policies, and Rural–Urban Land Conversion in China and Vietnam," Land, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-17, April.
    15. Martin De Jong & Helen Stout & Li Sun, 2017. "Seeing the People’s Republic of China through the Eyes of Montesquieu: Why Sino-European Collaboration on Eco City Development Suffers from European Misinterpretations of “Good Governance”," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-14, February.
    16. Premalatha, M. & Tauseef, S.M. & Abbasi, Tasneem & Abbasi, S.A., 2013. "The promise and the performance of the world's first two zero carbon eco-cities," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 660-669.
    17. Pasimeni, Maria Rita & Petrosillo, Irene & Aretano, Roberta & Semeraro, Teodoro & De Marco, Antonella & Zaccarelli, Nicola & Zurlini, Giovanni, 2014. "Scales, strategies and actions for effective energy planning: A review," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 165-174.
    18. Mora, Luca & Deakin, Mark & Reid, Alasdair, 2019. "Strategic principles for smart city development: A multiple case study analysis of European best practices," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 70-97.
    19. Andreani, Stefano & Kalchschmidt, Matteo & Pinto, Roberto & Sayegh, Allen, 2019. "Reframing technologically enhanced urban scenarios: A design research model towards human centered smart cities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 15-25.
    20. Bibri, Simon Elias, 2022. "Eco-districts and data-driven smart eco-cities: Emerging approaches to strategic planning by design and spatial scaling and evaluation by technology," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:39:y:2015:i:3:p:495-517. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0309-1317 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.