IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v52y2015i11p1962-1982.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strategizing urbanism in the era of neoliberalization: State power reshuffling, land development and municipal finance in urbanizing China

Author

Listed:
  • George CS Lin

    (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

  • Xun Li

    (Sun Yat-sen University, China)

  • Fiona F Yang

    (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

  • Fox ZY Hu

    (Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong)

Abstract

This paper examines the new dynamism of China’s urbanization in which urbanism has been actively pursued by municipal governments as a strategy to negotiate and contest with the new power relations established by the post-reform regime in the era of neoliberalization. The research identifies the salient features of urbanization and urban land development since the 1990s, probes into their social and political origins, and evaluates the effects of Chinese urban revolutions from above on economic growth, regional inequality and social volatility. The data analysed include those gathered from the national level and from the Guangzhou metropolis in southern China. The interwoven processes of state power reshuffling, urban land development and municipal finance in contemporary China are believed to have constituted a significant and controversial case for critical evaluation of the political origins of urban revolutions in the age of global urbanism and their uneven socioeconomic consequences.

Suggested Citation

  • George CS Lin & Xun Li & Fiona F Yang & Fox ZY Hu, 2015. "Strategizing urbanism in the era of neoliberalization: State power reshuffling, land development and municipal finance in urbanizing China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(11), pages 1962-1982, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:52:y:2015:i:11:p:1962-1982
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098013513644
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098013513644
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098013513644?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. Michael Goldman, 2011. "Speculative Urbanism and the Making of the Next World City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 555-581, May.
    2. Scott, Allen J. (ed.), 2001. "Global City-Regions: Trends, Theory, Policy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198297994.
    3. Ananya Roy, 2009. "The 21st-Century Metropolis: New Geographies of Theory," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(6), pages 819-830.
    4. Yu Zhou & Yifei Sun & Y. H. Dennis Wei & George C. S. Lin, 2011. "De-centering 'spatial fix'--patterns of territorialization and regional technological dynamism of ICT hubs in China," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 119-150, January.
    5. George Lin, 2009. "Scaling-up Regional Development in Globalizing China: Local Capital Accumulation, Land-centred Politics, and Reproduction of Space," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 429-447.
    6. Jiang Xu & Anthony G.O. Yeh, 2005. "City Repositioning and Competitiveness Building in Regional Development: New Development Strategies in Guangzhou, China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 283-308, June.
    7. Hsing, You-tien, 2010. "The Great Urban Transformation: Politics of Land and Property in China," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199568048.
    8. Solomon Benjamin, 2008. "Occupancy Urbanism: Radicalizing Politics and Economy beyond Policy and Programs," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 719-729, September.
    9. Leong Liew, 2005. "China's Engagement with Neo-liberalism: Path Dependency, Geography and Party Self-Reinvention," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 331-352.
    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. Li Wang & Heng Chao & Guicai Li, 2019. "Diversification and Local Embeddedness: The Rescaling of National New Area Governance in Post-Reform China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-22, November.
    2. Yong Liu & Wenze Yue & Peilei Fan & Yi Peng & Zhengtao Zhang, 2016. "Financing China's Suburbanization: Capital Accumulation through Suburban Land Development in Hangzhou," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(6), pages 1112-1133, November.

    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. Loraine Kennedy, 2017. "State restructuring and emerging patterns of subnational policy-making and governance in China and India," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(1), pages 6-24, February.
    2. Fulong Wu, 2020. "Scripting Indian and Chinese urban spatial transformation: Adding new narratives to gentrification and suburbanisation research," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 38(6), pages 980-997, September.
    3. Fulong Wu, 2016. "China's Emergent City-Region Governance: A New Form of State Spatial Selectivity through State-orchestrated Rescaling," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(6), pages 1134-1151, November.
    4. Tom Gillespie, 2020. "The Real Estate Frontier," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 599-616, July.
    5. Fulong Wu, 2020. "Adding new narratives to the urban imagination: An introduction to ‘New directions of urban studies in China’," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(3), pages 459-472, February.
    6. Ludovic Halbert & Hortense Rouanet, 2014. "Filtering Risk Away: Global Finance Capital, Transcalar Territorial Networks and the (Un)Making of City-Regions: An Analysis of Business Property Development in Bangalore, India," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(3), pages 471-484, March.
    7. Gavin Shatkin, 2014. "Contesting the Indian City: Global Visions and the Politics of the Local," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 1-13, January.
    8. Jennifer Robinson, 2016. "Comparative Urbanism: New Geographies and Cultures of Theorizing the Urban," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 187-199, January.
    9. Eric Sheppard & Vinay Gidwani & Michael Goldman & Helga Leitner & Ananya Roy & Anant Maringanti, 2015. "Introduction: Urban revolutions in the age of global urbanism," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(11), pages 1947-1961, August.
    10. Hyun Bang Shin & Loretta Lees & Ernesto López-Morales, 2016. "Introduction: Locating gentrification in the Global East," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(3), pages 455-470, February.
    11. Fu, Yang & Zhang, Xiaoling, 2018. "Two faces of an eco-city? Sustainability transition and territorial rescaling of a new town in Zhuhai," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 627-636.
    12. Seth Schindler & Jonathan Silver, 2019. "Florida in the Global South: How Eurocentrism Obscures Global Urban Challenges—and What We Can Do about It," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 794-805, July.
    13. Malini Ranganathan, 2014. "Paying for Pipes, Claiming Citizenship: Political Agency and Water Reforms at the Urban Periphery," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 590-608, March.
    14. George CS Lin & Amy Y Zhang, 2015. "Emerging spaces of neoliberal urbanism in China: Land commodification, municipal finance and local economic growth in prefecture-level cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(15), pages 2774-2798, November.
    15. Lin, Wanlin & Lin, George C.S., 2023. "Strategizing actors and agents in the functioning of informal property Rights: The tragicomedy of the extralegal housing market in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    16. Willem Paling, 2012. "Planning a Future for Phnom Penh: Mega Projects, Aid Dependence and Disjointed Governance," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(13), pages 2889-2912, October.
    17. Dawson, Katherine, 2021. "Under the wire: splintered time and ongoing temporariness in Accra’s electropolis," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108572, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Thinphanga, Pakamas & Friend, Richard, 2024. "Thailand’s policy vacuum: Land use planning as sites of negotiation and contestation," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    19. Dekel, Tomer & Meir, Avinoam & Alfasi, Nurit, 2019. "Formalizing infrastructures, civic networks and production of space: Bedouin informal settlements in Be'er-Sheva metropolis," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 91-99.
    20. Gao, Jinlong & Chen, Wen & Yuan, Feng, 2017. "Spatial restructuring and the logic of industrial land redevelopment in urban China: I. Theoretical considerations," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 604-613.

    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:52:y:2015:i:11:p:1962-1982. 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.