The assembly of locally rooted industrial networks in the Pearl River Delta region: insights for the regeneration of industrial land

Locally rooted industrial networks pose significant challenges to the sustainable regeneration of industrial land in China. This paper examines the process of rural industrialization in the Shunde District of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region and its relationships to current regeneration practices from a historical perspective. Drawing on assemblage thinking, the paper traces the four stages of Shunde’s industrial networks assembly process and depicts the ongoing regeneration activities, delving into how heterogeneous entities come together and (re)assemble unique networks attached to the locality over time. The findings show that the assembly and regeneration of industrial networks are subject to diverse interactions between multiple translocal assemblages and Shunde as a place-assemblage. These interactions are conditioned by the distributed agency that emerges from the components of the place-assemblage. Local agency’s enactment of sustainable futures requires a comprehensive understanding of the historical development of local industrial networks and the socio-spatial relationships between heterogeneous entities within or across assemblages to inform and precede interventions such as sustainable regeneration policies and practices.