IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v114y2022ics0264837721006566.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Specialty towns in China: Towards a typological policy approach

Author

Listed:
  • Hu, Xiaohui
  • Wu, Qianbo
  • Xu, Wei
  • Li, Yuwen

Abstract

Recently, a new state-led platform of regional development in China, known as specialty towns, has been launched and rolled out nationwide. Despite the greater emphasis on place-based industry specialism and agglomeration, the new strategy suffers from a typical top-down governance approach that has confronted emerging problems. In this paper by using the agglomeration theory we link regional preconditions for industrial and social (dis)advantages to various patterns of specialty towns. Drawing upon modern policy concepts from an evolutionary perspective, it offers a basic ex ante policy approach, by developing more specific policy orientations suitable for different types of specialty towns. Combined with our survey, on-site interviews and policy material analyses, we examine the historical foundations, industrial attributes and developmental aims of 134 provincial-level specialty towns in Zhejiang. We have identified three key types of specialty towns with grounded empirical illustrations: 1) State-planned platform specialty towns for developing emerging industries (Dream Town and Photovoltaic Town); 2) Specialized market-based specialty towns for upgrading mature industries (Socks Art Town) and; 3) Natural/cultural asset-based specialty towns for fostering the tourism industry (Hot Springs Town). A typological policy approach is proposed in order to avoid the potential ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy trap for future’s ST development.

Suggested Citation

  • Hu, Xiaohui & Wu, Qianbo & Xu, Wei & Li, Yuwen, 2022. "Specialty towns in China: Towards a typological policy approach," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:114:y:2022:i:c:s0264837721006566
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105933
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837721006566
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105933?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Ron Boschma & Koen Frenken, 2011. "The emerging empirics of evolutionary economic geography," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 295-307, March.
    2. Robert Hassink & Arne Isaksen & Michaela Trippl, 2019. "Towards a comprehensive understanding of new regional industrial path development," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(11), pages 1636-1645, November.
    3. Bellandi, Marco & Lombardi, Silvia, 2012. "Specialized markets and Chinese industrial clusters: The experience of Zhejiang Province," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 626-638.
    4. Jennifer Clark & David Bailey, 2018. "Labour, work and regional resilience," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(6), pages 741-744, June.
    5. Xiaohui Hu & Chun Yang, 2019. "Institutional change and divergent economic resilience: Path development of two resource-depleted cities in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(16), pages 3466-3485, December.
    6. Ron Martin & Peter Sunley, 2006. "Path dependence and regional economic evolution," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(4), pages 395-437, August.
    7. Gang Zhang & Qian Xu & Xiaming Liu, 2011. "Knowledge Diffusion within the Datang Sock-manufacturing Cluster in China," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(7), pages 977-996.
    8. David E. Bloom & David Canning & Günther Fink, 2008. "Urbanization and the Wealth of Nations," PGDA Working Papers 3008, Program on the Global Demography of Aging.
    9. Todtling, Franz & Trippl, Michaela, 2005. "One size fits all?: Towards a differentiated regional innovation policy approach," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1203-1219, October.
    10. Harry Garretsen & Philip McCann & Ron Martin & Peter Tyler, 2013. "The future of regional policy," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 6(2), pages 179-186.
    11. Huasheng Zhu & Xue Huang & Qingcan He & Jie Li & Lingzhi Ren, 2016. "Sustaining Competitiveness: Moving Towards Upstream Manufacturing in Specialized-Market-Based Clusters in the Chinese Toy Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-19, February.
    12. Wagner, Alfred, 1891. "Marshall's Principles of Economics," History of Economic Thought Articles, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, vol. 5, pages 319-338.
    13. Yehua Dennis Wei & Wangming Li & Chunbin Wang, 2007. "Restructuring Industrial Districts, Scaling Up Regional Development: A Study of the Wenzhou Model, China," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 83(4), pages 421-444, October.
    14. Robert Hassink, 2005. "How to unlock regional economies from path dependency? From learning region to learning cluster," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 521-535, June.
    15. Antony Potter & H. Doug Watts, 2011. "Evolutionary agglomeration theory: increasing returns, diminishing returns, and the industry life cycle," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 417-455, May.
    16. Fulong Wu & Nicholas A Phelps, 2011. "(Post)Suburban Development and State Entrepreneurialism in Beijing's Outer Suburbs," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(2), pages 410-430, February.
    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. Yi Yang & Tetsuo Kidokoro & Fumihiko Seta & Ziyi Wang, 2023. "Are Local Residents Benefiting from the Latest Urbanization Dynamic in China? China’s Characteristic Town Strategy from a Resident Perspective: Evidence from Two Cases in Hangzhou," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-37, February.
    2. Xuliang Zhang & Chenxiang Elaine Ji & Haixia Zhang & Yuchen Wei & Jianwei Jin, 2023. "On the Role of the Digital Industry in Reshaping Urban Economic Structure: the Case of Hangzhou, China," Journal of Economic Analysis, Anser Press, vol. 2(4), pages 123-139, July.
    3. Xiao Gong & Xiaolin Zhang & Jieyi Tao & Hongbo Li & Yunrui Zhang, 2022. "An Evaluation of the Development Performance of Small County Towns and Its Influencing Factors: A Case Study of Small Towns in Jiangyin City in the Yangtze River Delta, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-22, July.

    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. Xuliang Zhang & Xiaohui Hu & Wei Xu, 2020. "Spatio‐temporal dynamics of technical efficiency in China’s specialized markets: A stochastic frontier analysis approach," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 1182-1202, September.
    2. Elena Zukauskaite & Michaela Trippl & Monica Plechero, 2017. "Institutional Thickness Revisited," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 93(4), pages 325-345, August.
    3. Ron Boschma & Ron Martin, 2010. "The Aims and Scope of Evolutionary Economic Geography," Chapters, in: Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Vitor Klein Schmidt & Aurora Carneiro Zen & Bernardo Fernandes Soares & Bruno Anicet Bittencourt, 2023. "Trajectory and cluster resilience elements: The case of the Brazilian wine cluster of the Serra Gaúcha," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 596-624, June.
    5. Ron Boschma, 2022. "Evolutionary Economic Geography and Policy," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2220, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Oct 2022.
    6. Filippo Randelli & Mauro Lombardi, 2014. "The Role of Leading Firms in the Evolution of SME Clusters: Evidence from the Leather Products Cluster in Florence," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(6), pages 1199-1211, June.
    7. Grillitsch, Markus & Hansen, Teis & Madsen, Stine, 2020. "How novel is Transformative Innovation Policy?," Papers in Innovation Studies 2020/8, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    8. Grillitsch, Markus & Trippl, Michaela, 2016. "Innovation Policies and New Regional Growth Paths: A place-based system failure framework," Papers in Innovation Studies 2016/26, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    9. Grillitsch, Markus, 2014. "Institutional Change and Economic Evolution in Regions," Papers in Innovation Studies 2014/1, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    10. Christoph Stich & Emmanouil Tranos & Max Nathan, 2023. "Modeling clusters from the ground up: A web data approach," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 50(1), pages 244-267, January.
    11. Robert & Claudia Klaerding, 2012. "Theoretical advancement in economic geography by engaged pluralism," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1202, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jan 2012.
    12. Bjørn T. Asheim & Arne Isaksen & Roman Martin & Michaela Trippl, 2017. "The role of clusters and public policy in new regional economic path development," Chapters, in: Dirk Fornahl & Robert Hassink (ed.), The Life Cycle of Clusters, chapter 1, pages 13-34, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Markus Grillitsch, 2014. "Regional Transformation: Institutional Change and Economic Evolution in Regions," ERSA conference papers ersa14p1481, European Regional Science Association.
    14. José Antonio Belso-Martínez & María José López-Sánchez & Rosario Mateu-García, 2018. "New MNE subsidiaries in old clusters: when, why, and how," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 441-467, March.
    15. Diana Vela-Almeida & Asbjørn Karlsen, 2023. "Reinforcing path marginalization: revealing the unaccounted labour organization at a mining frontier in Indonesia," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 16(3), pages 481-494.
    16. Dirk Fornahl & Robert Hassink & Claudia Klaerding & Ivo Mossig & Heike Schröder, 2011. "From the Old Path of Shipbuilding onto the New Path of Offshore Wind Energy? The Case of Northern Germany," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(5), pages 835-855, September.
    17. Isaksen , Arne & Trippl , Michaela, 2014. "Regional industrial path development in different regional innovation systems: A conceptual analysis," Papers in Innovation Studies 2014/17, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    18. Hervas Oliver,Jose Luis & Gonzalez,Gregorio & Caja,Pedro, 2014. "Clusters and industrial districts: where is the literature going? Identifying emerging sub-fields of research," INGENIO (CSIC-UPV) Working Paper Series 201409, INGENIO (CSIC-UPV).
    19. Giulio Buciuni & Gary Pisano, 2018. "Knowledge integrators and the survival of manufacturing clusters," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(5), pages 1069-1089.
    20. Ron Boschma, 2021. "Designing Smart Specialization Policy: relatedness, unrelatedness, or what?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2128, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2021.

    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:eee:lauspo:v:114:y:2022:i:c:s0264837721006566. 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: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    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.