IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v54y2017i14p3281-3298.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Planning discourses, local state commitment, and the making of a new state space (NSS) for China: Evidence from regional strategic development plans in the Pearl River Delta

Author

Listed:
  • Yi Sun

    (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

  • Roger CK Chan

    (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

Abstract

Grounded in the interpretive tradition, this paper applies the theory of New State Space (NSS) to China’s city regionalism. We argue that in the NSS effort in China, planning discourses enable a regulatory framework to be applied at the level of city region. City regionalism corresponds to the conceptualisation of NSS in two dimensions. First, the rise of the city region gives rise to a new territorial form of state administration. Second, the city region is made to be the most appropriate scale encapsulating capital–labour relationship (CLR). This study uses NSS to examine the regional strategic development plans (RSDPs) of the Pearl River Delta Region and presents two primary arguments based on an interpretation of the Outline of the Plan for the Reform and Development of the Pearl River Delta (2008–2020) (OPRDPRD) and the preliminary actions of various levels of government based on it. First, RSDPs serve as effective regulatory tools that not only enable new state administration articulating regulatory responsibility throughout the various levels of governmental hierarchy, but also elaborate the CLR in the interest of regional based industrial development, infrastructure construction, and formulation of social policies. Second, the city region has become a site for political rhetoric and related actions whereby regulatory order is unfolding in order to itself effect an economic restructuring and political reshuffle. Creating a city region is ‘planning ideological’ and solving problems is difficult because of the asymmetric jurisdictional power relations between municipalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Yi Sun & Roger CK Chan, 2017. "Planning discourses, local state commitment, and the making of a new state space (NSS) for China: Evidence from regional strategic development plans in the Pearl River Delta," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(14), pages 3281-3298, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:54:y:2017:i:14:p:3281-3298
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098016665954
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098016665954
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098016665954?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. Brenner, Neil, 2004. "New State Spaces: Urban Governance and the Rescaling of Statehood," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199270064.
    2. Neil Brenner, 1999. "Globalisation as Reterritorialisation: The Re-scaling of Urban Governance in the European Union," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 36(3), pages 431-451, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Carol Upadhya, 2017. "Amaravati and the New Andhra," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 12(2), pages 177-202, August.
    2. lain Deas & Alex Lord, 2006. "From a New Regionalism to an Unusual Regionalism? The Emergence of Non-standard Regional Spaces and Lessons for the Territorial Reorganisation of the State," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(10), pages 1847-1877, September.
    3. Hickman, Hannah & While, Aidan, 2023. "Housing and the politics of Nationally Strategic Infrastructure Planning in England," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    4. Alessandro Coppola & Alberto Vanolo, 2015. "Normalising autonomous spaces: Ongoing transformations in Christiania, Copenhagen," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(6), pages 1152-1168, May.
    5. Yanpeng Jiang & Paul Waley, 2020. "Small horse pulls big cart in the scalar struggles of competing administrations in Anhui Province, China," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 38(2), pages 329-346, March.
    6. Janice Morphet, 2017. "Rescaling the suburban: New directions in the relationship between governance and infrastructure," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 32(8), pages 803-817, December.
    7. 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.
    8. Gordon MacLeod, 2011. "Urban Politics Reconsidered," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(12), pages 2629-2660, September.
    9. Mustafa Kemal BayirbaÄŸ, 2010. "Local Entrepreneurialism and State Rescaling in Turkey," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(2), pages 363-385, February.
    10. Ayda Eraydın & Bilge Armatlı Köroğlu & Hilal Erkuş Öztürk & Suna Senem Yaşar, 2008. "Network Governance for Competitiveness: The Role of Policy Networks in the Economic Performance of Settlements in the Izmir Region," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(11), pages 2291-2321, October.
    11. Nikita Sud, 2017. "State, scale and networks in the liberalisation of India’s land," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(1), pages 76-93, February.
    12. Mössner Samuel & Freytag Tim, 2014. "Setting the Ground for Global City Formation: Neoliberalisation and Local Elites in Frankfurt on the Main," Quaestiones Geographicae, Sciendo, vol. 33(4), pages 81-88.
    13. Kristian Olesen & Carsten J Hansen, 2020. "Introducing business regions in Denmark: The ‘businessification’ of strategic spatial planning?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 38(2), pages 366-383, March.
    14. Krisztina Varró, 2014. "Spatial Imaginaries of the Dutch–German–Belgian Borderlands: A Multidimensional Analysis of Cross-Border Regional Governance," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(6), pages 2235-2255, November.
    15. Geneviève Zembri-Mary & Virginie Engrand-Linder, 2023. "Urban planning law in the face of the Olympic challenge: Between innovation and criticism of exceptional urban regeneration," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 38(4), pages 369-388, June.
    16. Navé Wald & Douglas P. Hill, 2016. "‘Rescaling’ alternative food systems: from food security to food sovereignty," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(1), pages 203-213, March.
    17. Kevin Fox Gotham, 2014. "Racialization and Rescaling: Post-Katrina Rebuilding and the Louisiana Road Home Program," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 773-790, May.
    18. Andrew Clarke & Lynda Cheshire, 2018. "The post-political state? The role of administrative reform in managing tensions between urban growth and liveability in Brisbane, Australia," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(16), pages 3545-3562, December.
    19. Juliana Hurtado Rassi, 2020. "Gestión conjunta de ecosistemas transfronterizos: la importancia del trabajo articulado entre los Estados para la conservación de los recursos naturales. Análisis del caso particular de la “Reserva de," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Derecho, number 1241, October.
    20. Tsu Lung Chou & Yu Chun Lin, 2007. "Industrial Park Development across the Taiwan Strait," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(8), pages 1405-1425, July.

    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:54:y:2017:i:14:p:3281-3298. 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.