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China's Eco-Cities as Variegated-super-1 Urban Sustainability: Dongtan Eco-City and Chongming Eco-Island

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  • I-Chun Catherine Chang
  • Eric Sheppard

Abstract

Proliferating environmental sustainability policy frameworks suggest that sustainability and economic competitiveness are essentially interdependent and mutually enhancing. Under these policy discourses, cities are designated as strategic geographical locales for fulfilling the green capitalist goal of reconciling the contradictions between the environment and development that have long bedeviled capitalism. While most urban sustainability agendas are crafted based on the experience of post-industrial countries, the promise of green capitalism and sustainability faces different challenges where industrial production still dominates the economy. However, research on whether and how urban sustainability policies are geographically variegated is still sparse, particularly beyond western (post)industrial capitalism. Examining the Dongtan eco-city project and the associated Chongming eco-island project in Shanghai, we interrogate how sustainability is imagined and practiced on the ground within the distinctive Chinese context. The meanings of sustainability in Dongtan and Chongming reflect the context of Chinese urbanization in the Shanghai area. Both Dongtan and Chongming seek to develop green technologies as a way to resolve the dilemma of being caught between urbanization and agriculture. This approach is also shaped by Chongming's island geography as enabling a self-sufficient development trajectory, and its desire to attract a cosmopolitan population. Through these place-specific contexts, the ecology and economy of Dongtan and Chongming become intertwined, producing and reproducing a variegated form of urban sustainability, and of "green capitalism."

Suggested Citation

  • I-Chun Catherine Chang & Eric Sheppard, 2013. "China's Eco-Cities as Variegated-super-1 Urban Sustainability: Dongtan Eco-City and Chongming Eco-Island," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 57-75, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:cjutxx:v:20:y:2013:i:1:p:57-75
    DOI: 10.1080/10630732.2012.735104
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hiroaki Suzuki & Arish Dastur & Sebastian Moffatt & Nanae Yabuki & Hinako Maruyama, . "Eco2 Cities : Ecological Cities as Economic Cities [Ciudades Eco2 : ciudades ecológicas como ciudades económicas]," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 2453, September.
    2. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    3. Fitzgerald, Joan, 2010. "Emerald Cities: Urban Sustainability and Economic Development," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195382761.
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    Cited by:

    1. Federico Caprotti & Cecilia Springer & Nichola Harmer, 2015. "‘Eco’ For Whom? Envisioning Eco-urbanism in the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city, China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3), pages 495-517, May.
    2. Yigitcanlar, Tan & Lee, Sang Ho, 2014. "Korean ubiquitous-eco-city: A smart-sustainable urban form or a branding hoax?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 100-114.
    3. Marit Rosol & Vincent Béal & Samuel Mössner, 2017. "Greenest cities? The (post-)politics of new urban environmental regimes," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(8), pages 1710-1718, August.
    4. Federico Cugurullo, 2018. "Exposing smart cities and eco-cities: Frankenstein urbanism and the sustainability challenges of the experimental city," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(1), pages 73-92, February.
    5. Premalatha, M. & Tauseef, S.M. & Abbasi, Tasneem & Abbasi, S.A., 2013. "The promise and the performance of the world's first two zero carbon eco-cities," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 660-669.
    6. Farah Mneimneh & Issam Srour & Isam Kaysi & Mona Harb, 2017. "Eco-City Projects: Incorporating Sustainability Requirements during Pre-Project Planning," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 47-74, January.
    7. Anna Hult, 2015. "The Circulation of Swedish Urban Sustainability Practices: To China and Back," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 47(3), pages 537-553, March.

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