Abstract
Guangzhou has been focusing and promoting economic transition processes and strategies in the past decade to regain and consolidate its economic, political, and cultural power within the Pearl River Delta. This has taken place by the development and redevelopment of defined core areas, such as the Zhujiang New Town as Guangzhou’s new CBD, Guangzhou University Town, or Guangzhou Science City as flagship project for establishing knowledge-intensive high-tech industries. At the same time and despite an otherwise strongly government-led and top-down followed urban planning system, one can observe very dynamic economic upgrading processes in areas not in the city or district governments’ focus. Here, planning power seems to be overridden and replaced by micro-stakeholder organizations such as urbanized villagers or private investors. Taking a case study from Guangzhou, the chapter investigates how areas of economic change are developed differently, looking at aspects of actor involvement, their objectives, and relations in these processes showing that indicators for a maturing megacity can also be found there.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
We use the term “urbanized villages” (chengzhongcun), according to Altrock and Schoon (2011:38), indicating that during the process of urbanization, former “natural villages” were incorporated by the city. The municipal governments mostly compensated the village collectives holding the land use rights for losing their agricultural land, but did not manage to compensate also the villager’s residential area and therefore these stayed with the village collectives. Today, there are still some areas in the city with land use rights under control of the village collectives (ibid.).
References
Altrock U, Schoon S (2011) The governance of urban upgrading in Southern China: the example of urbanized villages. disP. Plann Rev 187(4/2011):37–48
Altrock U, Schoon S (2013) Urban villages as local economic clusters: the case of Zhongda cloth market in Guangzhou. In: Wu FL, Zhang FZ, Webster C (eds) Rural migrants in urban China. Enclaves and transient urbanism. Routledge, Abingdon
Benz A, Lütz S, Schimank U, Simonis G (2007) Einleitung. In: Benz A, Lütz S, Schimank U, Simonis G (eds) Handbuch Governance. Theoretische Grundlagen und empirische Anwendungsfelder. Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden, pp 9–26
Chen X (1994) Zhong guo de se she hui zhi yi de jian jin fang shi. In: Deng Xiaoping li lun yan jiu. People’s Press, Beijing
DiGaetano A, Strom E (2003) Comparative urban governance: an integrated approach. Urban Aff Rev 38(3):356–395
Florini Ann, Lai Hairong, Tan Yeling (2012) China experiments: from local innovation to national reform. Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC
Friedmann J (2005) China’s urban transition. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis/London
Gaubatz P (1999) China’s urban transformation: patterns and processes of morphological change in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Urban Stud 36(9):1495–1521
Guangdong Province People’s Government No. 78 (2009) Opinions on promoting “Three-olds” redevelopments and advancing intensive and economic land use
Guangzhou Municipal Development and Reform Commission No. 4 (2009) Implementation plan for transforming Guangzhou into a Modern Service Center
Guangzhou Municipal Government No. 56 (2009) Opinions of People’s Government of Guangzhou City on accelerating and promoting the “Three Olds” Redevelopment
Haizhu District Government No. 107 (2002) Installation of a Comprehensive Improvement and Management Committee for Zhongda Cloth Market and its Surrounding Area (in Chinese)
Haizhu District Government No. 13 (2006) Proposal for accelerating the development of Zhongda Cloth Market (in Chinese)
Haizhu District Government No. 34 (2007) The taxation collection’s special rectification work proposal of Zhongda Cloth Market (in Chinese)
Haizhu District, Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) (2003). Newsletter in Dec 2003 (in Chinese)
Heberer T (2006) Party State im “Reich der Mitte” Zum politischen System in China. WeltTrends 53 (Winter) Jg. 14 2006/07, pp 59–72
Heilmann S (2004) Das politische System der Volksrepublik China, vol 2. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden
Heilmann S (2008) Policy experimentation in China’s economic rise. Stud Comp Int Dev 43:1–26
Heilmann S (2011a) Making plans for markets: policy for the long term in China. Harv Asia Q 13(2):33–40
Heilmann S (2011b) Experience first, laws later: experimentation and breakthroughs in the restructuring of China’s state sector. In: Oi JC (ed) Going private in China: the politics of corporate restructuring and system reform. Shorenstein Center and Brookings Institution, Stanford/Baltimore, pp 95–118
Heilmann S, Perry E (eds) (2011) Mao’s invisible hand: the political foundations of adaptive governance in China. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Hu XJ (2004) The removal of the Textile District touches thousands of private enterprises’ hearts. Private Economic News (in Chinese)
IV HZDETB (2010) Interview with Haizhu District Economic and Trade Bureau, 28 Dec 2010
IV GDUPDI (2012) Interview with Guangdong Province Urban Planning and Design Institute, 18 May 2012
Jiang B-Y (2007) The strategy of wholesale industry development. Mark Modernizatio n 6(506) (in Chinese)
Li K, Lok M (1995) A glossary of political terms of the People’s Republic of China. Chinese Univ Press, Hong Kong
Liang D (2005) One-million-square-meter Textile District thrills real estate market in East Haizhu. Yangcheng Evening News (in Chinese)
Lieberthal K (1995) Governing China: from revolution through reform. W. W. Norton & Company Inc., New York/London
Lin GCS (2001) Metropolitan development in a transitional socialist economy: spatial restructuring in the Pearl River Delta, China. Urban Stud 38(3):383–406
Liu R, Deng J (2004) Rule-breaking buildings are removed again in Textile District, Ruikang Road is expected to be open to traffic year-end. Nanfang Daily, 13 Aug 2004 (in Chinese)
Ma LJC (2002) Urban transformation in China 1949–2000: a review and research agenda. Environ Plann A 34:1545–1569
Ma LJC (2004) Economic reforms, urban spatial restructuring, and planning in China. Prog Plann 61:237–260
Ma LJC, Wu F (eds) (2005) Restructuring the Chinese city: changing economy, society and space. Routledge, Abingdon/New York
National Development and Reform Commission (2008) The outline of the plan for the reform and development of the Pearl River Delta (2008–2020), Dec 2008
Oi JC (1992) Fiscal reform and the economic foundations of local state corporatism in China. World Polit 45(1):99–126
Oi JC (1995) The role of the local state in China’s transitional economy. China Q 144:1132–1149
Pierre J (1999) Models of urban governance: the institutional dimension of urban politics. Urban Aff Rev 34(3):372–396
Pierre J, Peters BG (2000) Governance, politics and the state. St. Martins Press, New York
Private Economy News (2005) Textile District: stalls of peddlers have been developed into international supermarkets. Private Economy News (in Chinese)
Schoon S (2011a) The challenges of redeveloping urbanized villages. Chengzhongcun gaizao mianlin de tiaozhan. Zhuqu Commun Des 2011(5):49–51
Schoon S (2011b) Niche authority in urbanized villages. Chengzhongcun de fengxi quanwei. Zhuqu Commun Des 2011(5):73–80
Schoon S (2011c) The power of conceded informality: experimental modes of urban restructuring. In: Conference paper presented at international conference on Urban and regional development in the 21st century and Lingnan Forum, Guangzhou, Dec 2011
Schoon S (2012) Niche authority in urbanized villages: bottom-up code-termination of mega-city development. In: Perera N, Tang WS (eds) Transforming Asian cities: intellectual impasse, Asian-izing space and emerging trans-localities. Routledge, London/New York
Schoon S, Altrock U (2009a) Conceded informality: experimental urban governance in the process of urban redevelopment and regeneration. In: Paper presented at the annual German Research Foundation Priority Program 1233 symposium in Dortmund, 22–23 June 2009
Schoon S, Altrock U (2009b) Informality and the state. In: Paper presented at the German Research Foundation Priority Program 1233 workshop in Guangzhou, 23 Nov 2009
Schoon S, Altrock U (2013) ‘Three Olds Redevelopment’ in Guangzhou. In: Wu FL, Zhang FZ, Webster C (eds) Rural migrants in urban China. Enclaves and transient urbanism. Routledge, Abingdon
Schröder F, Waibel M (2012) Urban governance and informality in China’s Pearl River Delta: investigating economic restructuring in Guangzhou. Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie 56(1–2):97–112
Schröder F, Waibel M, Altrock U (2010) Global change and China’s clusters: the restructuring of Guangzhou’s Textile District. Pac News 33:4–8
Shen J (2007) Scale, state and the city: urban transformation in post-reform China. Habitat Int 31:303–316
Thun E (2004) Adaptive informal institutions and endogenous institutional change in China. World Polit 59(1):116–141
Wu F (2002) China’s changing urban governance in the transition towards a more market-oriented economy. Urban Stud 39(7):1071–1093
Wu F (ed) (2006) Globalization and the Chinese city. Routledge, New York/London
Wu F, Xu J, Yeh AG-O (2007) Urban development in post-reform China – state, market, and space. Routledge, London/New York
Wuttke C (2011) Die chinesische Stadt im Transformationsprozess. Governanceformen und institutioneller Wandel am Beispiel des Perlflussdeltas. (Dissertationsschrift), Universität Osnabrück
Yuan QF, Qiu JS, Lin G, Xu SH (2007) Development of Zhongda Cloth Market. Haizhu Branch of Guangzhou Municipal Urban Planning Bureau & Geography and Planning School of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou (in Chinese)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schoon, S., Schröder, F. (2014). Maturing Governance Over Time: Groping for Economic Upgrading in Guangzhou’s Zhongda Cloth Market. In: Altrock, U., Schoon, S. (eds) Maturing Megacities. Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6674-7_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6674-7_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-6673-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6674-7
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)