IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v39y2002i7p1071-1093.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

China's Changing Urban Governance in the Transition Towards a More Market-oriented Economy

Author

Listed:
  • Fulong Wu

    (Department of Geography, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK. F.Wu@soton ac.uk)

Abstract

China's changing urban development processes and urban landscapes in the transition towards a more market-oriented economy have received extensive research attention in recent years. Relatively, the governing of Chinese cities is still underresearched. This article aims to analyse the forces released both inside and outside the formal socialist state system and the impacts on phenomenal restructuring of urban governance, especially at local levels. Marketisation has created new elements beyond the reach of state work-units that represent the state's 'hierarchical' control. The pillars of the socialist governing structure-the party-state, the work-units system and household registration-are shaken by these forces. The changes in the organisation of people, capital, production materials, infrastructure and space fundamentally demand new urban governance. Territorial organisations such as the municipality, urban districts, Street Office and Residents' Committees are reinvented and consolidated to restore a governable society. The devolution towards the base level and the reinvention of local communities reflect the state's attempt to reconsolidate its power to create a governable society as well as to cope with practical pressures such as the provision of social assistance to poor and aged residents, re-employment of laid-off workers and the management of 'floating' immigrants. The combination of new market elements and decentralised state apparatus has given rise to the entrepreneurial endeavour of China's governance. This research highlights the micro-foundation of the new urban governance in addition to the `globalisation-capital mobility—city competitiveness' thesis.

Suggested Citation

  • Fulong Wu, 2002. "China's Changing Urban Governance in the Transition Towards a More Market-oriented Economy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 39(7), pages 1071-1093, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:39:y:2002:i:7:p:1071-1093
    DOI: 10.1080/00420980220135491
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/00420980220135491
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00420980220135491?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ya Ping Wang & Alan Murie, 2000. "Social and Spatial Implications of Housing Reform in China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 397-417, June.
    2. Kornai, Janos, 1992. "The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198287766.
    3. Steinfeld,Edward S., 1998. "Forging Reform in China," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521633352, January.
    4. Allan Cochrane & Jamie Peck & Adam Tickell, 1996. "Manchester Plays Games: Exploring the Local Politics of Globalisation," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 33(8), pages 1319-1336, October.
    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. Schröder Friederike & Waibel Michael, 2012. "Urban governance and informality in China’s Pearl River Delta: Investigating economic restructuring in Guangzhou," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 56(1-2), pages 97-112, October.
    2. Ya Ping Wang & Yanglin Wang & Jiansheng Wu, 2009. "Urbanization and Informal Development in China: Urban Villages in Shenzhen," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 957-973, December.
    3. Loretta Lees, 2011. "Gentrifying the World City," Chapters, in: Ben Derudder & Michael Hoyler & Peter J. Taylor & Frank Witlox (ed.), International Handbook of Globalization and World Cities, chapter 33, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Jiang Xu & Anthony Yeh & Fulong Wu, 2009. "Land Commodification: New Land Development and Politics in China since the Late 1990s," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 890-913, December.
    5. Li Tian, 2014. "Property Rights, Land Values and Urban Development," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 15856.
    6. Wang, Yi & Bramwell, Bill, 2012. "Heritage protection and tourism development priorities in Hangzhou, China: A political economy and governance perspective," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 988-998.
    7. Siu Wai Wong, 2015. "Urbanization as A Process of State Building: Local Governance Reforms in China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 912-926, September.
    8. Ali Cheshmehzangi, 2018. "The Changing Urban Landscape of Chinese Cities: Positive and Negative Impacts of Urban Design Controls on Contemporary Urban Housing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-21, August.
    9. Fu, Qiang, 2018. "Bringing urban governance back in: Neighborhood conflicts and depression," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 1-9.

    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. Liou, Chih-shian, 2014. "Rent-seeking at Home, Capturing Market Share Abroad: The Domestic Determinants of the Transnationalization of China State Construction Engineering Corporation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 220-231.
    2. Kim, Byung Yeon, 1997. "Soviet Household Saving Function," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 30(2-3), pages 181-203.
    3. J. Kornai., 2002. "The System Paradigm," Voprosy Ekonomiki, NP Voprosy Ekonomiki, vol. 4.
    4. repec:zbw:bofitp:2008_015 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Helena Hannula, 2001. "Restructuring of the Estonian economy and the role of FDIs in it," University of Tartu - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, in: Foreign Direct Investments in the Estonian Economy, volume 9, chapter 3, pages 91-174, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu (Estonia).
    6. J. David Brown & John S. Earle, 2002. "Job Reallocation and Productivity Growth under Alternative Economic Systems and Policies: Evidence from the Soviet Transition," CERT Discussion Papers 0208, Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation, Heriot Watt University.
    7. Katharina Pistor & Martin Raiser & Stanislaw Gelfer, 2000. "Law and Finance in Transition Economies," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 8(2), pages 325-368, July.
    8. Berkowitz, Daniel & DeJong, David N., 2002. "Accounting for growth in post-Soviet Russia," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 221-239, March.
    9. Modell, Sven & Yang, ChunLei, 2018. "Financialisation as a strategic action field: An historically informed field study of governance reforms in Chinese state-owned enterprises," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 41-59.
    10. Daniel Fu Keung Wong & He Xue Song, 2008. "The Resilience of Migrant Workers in Shanghai China: the Roles of Migration Stress and Meaning of Migration," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 54(2), pages 131-143, March.
    11. Sergio Díaz-Briquets & Jorge F. Pérez-López, 1998. "Socialism and Environmental Disruption: Implications for Cuba," Annual Proceedings, The Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy, vol. 8.
    12. Isis Gaddis & Stephan Klasen, 2014. "Economic development, structural change, and women’s labor force participation:," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 27(3), pages 639-681, July.
    13. Georgescu, George, 2023. "The strange case of Romania’s Nicolae Ceaușescu: when the liquidation of sovereign debt results in country total damaging," MPRA Paper 117196, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Rosta, Miklós, 2013. "New Public Management: opportunity for the Centre, thread for the Periphery," MPRA Paper 68474, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Kevin G Ward, 2000. "State Licence, Local Settlements, and the Politics of ‘Branding’ the City," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 18(3), pages 285-300, June.
    16. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2001. "The Soft Budget Constraint: A Theoretical Clarification," Post-Print hal-00629160, HAL.
    17. Prema-chandra Athukorala & Hal Hill, 2010. "Asian trade: long-term patterns and key policy issues," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 24(2), pages 52-82, November.
    18. Robert E. Hall & Charles I. Jones, 1999. "Why do Some Countries Produce So Much More Output Per Worker than Others?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(1), pages 83-116.
    19. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2021. "Introduction: a special issue in honoring Janos Kornai," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 187(1), pages 1-13, April.
    20. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2022. "In Janos Kornai’s memory," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 190(3), pages 265-271, March.
    21. Christian L. Redfearn, 2006. "The Emergence Of Centrality In A Transition Economy: Comparing Land Market Dynamics Measured Under Monocentric And Semiparametric Models," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 825-846, December.

    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:sae:urbstu:v:39:y:2002:i:7:p:1071-1093. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    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.