Suchergebnisse

Chinese urbanism has long historical roots and has profoundly influenced world civilizations. Yet, the Chinese city has not, until very recently, attracted sustained or intense global attention. In the post-reform era, especially after 1992, the scale and speed of China's urbanization, and the intricacy of its dynamics and socio-spatial consequences have dwarfed those of other countries in the world. The latest reform era of urban China is characterized by a renewed and thriving urbanism, which manifests itself in the sheer scale of new urban space (re)production and the intricate interrelationships among the state, market, and society. The proliferation of new urban spaces signifies the emergence of new mechanisms of space (re)production, which have led to the rise of a new urban spatial order. Here, new urban spaces refer to emerging physical/virtual, social, and cultural spaces that are situated at the confluence of China's recent economic and political liberalization, globalization, and market transition. The term also denotes a general condition of rapid socio-spatial transformation signaling the latest episode of China's urbanization.

Since the early 1980s the conversion of land to non-agricultural use has been arguably the most widespread and intense in China's history. The recent increase in non-agricultural land use has been caused largely by the rapid expansion of urban settlements and the construction of roads and stand-alone industrial sites. Among the factors contributing to these changes, rural–urban migration, urbanization and accelerating development are among the most important. Analysis of land use data from three coastal provinces suggests that variations in the share of land occupied for non-agricultural use among county-level administrative units can be explained largely by differences in population density, urbanization and level of development. While the conversion of land to non-agricultural use is bound to continue in the coming decade, recent institutional changes make it likely that future changes, particularly the encroachment on cultivated land, will be more restricted and better controlled.

The relationship between industrial clustering and technological innovation has been a subject of intense enquiry and heated debate. We examine the actual pattern of industrial clustering and technological innovation in China, focusing on the information and communication technology (ICT) industry. With our systematic analysis of the data gathered at the national level we found no significant relationship between spatial agglomeration and economic performance. Our questionnaire survey and personal interviews conducted in Shenzhen—China's leading special economic zone—revealed a peculiar pattern consistent with that at the national level. Although there existed frequent and intensive production linkages among firms in the Shenzhen ICT industrial cluster, the innovative performance of these firms has been rather poor. Most of the ICT manufacturing firms obtained their core technology through internal research and development (R & D) activities rather than through technology transfer or knowledge spillover. There is a lack of interest among firms to seek cooperation and communication based on knowledge, technology, or R & D activities with other firms in the same cluster. The peculiar pattern of clustering and innovation in China suggests that technological innovation may have a divergent regional trajectory more sophisticated than that which has been described in the existing theory of industrial clusters. The study closes with a plea to go beyond a relational turn in economic geography and to take more seriously the roles played by actors and agents within different bounded and grounded institutional and regional contexts.

Cover -- Half Title -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of figures -- List of tables -- List of contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Part I Overview of mega-city regions in China -- 1 Introduction and overview: emerging mega-city regions in China -- 2 A review of urban agglomeration and China's urbanisation strategy -- 3 Development and competitiveness of China's mega-city regions -- 4 Status, strategy and development path of China's urban agglomerations -- Part II Issues and challenges of mega-city region development in China -- 5 Producer service linkages that underlie China's emerging mega-city regions: the case of the Pearl River Delta -- 6 Mega-events and the transformation of mega-city regions in China -- 7 Analysis of urban competitiveness and migration: the case of the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions -- 8 Inter-city transit supply in China: a review of the status of practice -- 9 Reproduction of space in the city centre of mega-city regions: bottom-up institutional reforms, profit redistribution, and urban redevelopment in Guangzhou -- 10 Urbanisation and its environmental effects in six emerging mega-city regions, China -- 11 Environmental challenges in Chinese mega-city regions: focusing on air-quality management -- 12 Governing mega-city regions in China: one region, many systems -- Part III Case studies of mega-city regions in China -- 13 The planning of spatial restructuring of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei mega-region -- 14 The making of a mega-city region as a state project: a case of Wuhan City Region, Central China -- 15 Examining the future development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area from the perspective of a mega-city region -- Index.