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Decoding Urban Land Governance: State Reconstruction in Contemporary Chinese Cities

Author

Listed:
  • Jiang Xu

    (Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong, jiangxu@cuhk.edu.hk)

  • Anthony Yeh

    (Department of Urban Planning and Design, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, hdxugoy@hkucc.hku.hk)

Abstract

In the rapidly growing literature on urban development in China, many authors have emphasised the salient features of economic decentralisation and the increasingly significant role of the local state. However, such arguments neglect a counter-trend in which the central state has deterritorialised and rehierarchised some key functions. Using the case of land governance, this paper argues that facing the complication of changing urban conditions, there is a resurgence of the state's regulatory power. The decentralisation of economic governance is now counter-balanced by the rise of state strategies to control the articulation of scales through which a more centrally consolidated power can be achieved. The central government still serves as an important level of economic regulation. In this sense, new interpretations of commoditised urban transformation, especially commoditised production of the built environment, should be understood by underscoring the interplay between trends of decentralisation and territorialisation and counter-trends of recentralisation and hierarchisation.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiang Xu & Anthony Yeh, 2009. "Decoding Urban Land Governance: State Reconstruction in Contemporary Chinese Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(3), pages 559-581, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:46:y:2009:i:3:p:559-581
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098008100995
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Xing Su & Zhu Qian, 2020. "State Intervention in Land Supply and Its Impact on Real Estate Investment in China: Evidence from Prefecture-Level Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-15, January.
    2. Jiang Xu & Anthony Yeh & Fulong Wu, 2009. "Land Commodification: New Land Development and Politics in China since the Late 1990s," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 890-913, December.
    3. Hoang Linh Nguyen & Jin Duan & Guo Qin Zhang, 2018. "Land Politics under Market Socialism: The State, Land Policies, and Rural–Urban Land Conversion in China and Vietnam," Land, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-17, April.
    4. Zhan Wang & Xiangzheng Deng & Cecilia Wong, 2016. "Integrated Land Governance for Eco-Urbanization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-16, September.

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