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Palgrave Macmillan

China’s Local Entrepreneurial State and New Urban Spaces

Downtown Redevelopment in Ningbo

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Han Zhang

    1. University of International Business & Economics, Beijing, China

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  • Provides a detailed case study of Ningbo, an oft neglected second-tier Chinese city, for a different perspective on urban China
  • Features ethnographic fieldwork for six months, including both in-depth interviews and participant/passive observations, which vividly portrays and interprets urban governance in contemporary China
  • Features intensive archival research conducted at local libraries and archives for a brief investigation of Ningbo’s urban history since 1840, as well as the government policies for urban redevelopment since the late 1990s
  • Presents a “people-oriented” perspective on China’s urban redevelopment, which is demonstrated through the voices and live experiences of various stakeholders involved in urban redevelopment, who have different sexes, ages, education, occupations, social status, religions and hometowns and even nationalities

Part of the book series: New Perspectives on Chinese Politics and Society (NPCPS)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
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  2. Introduction

    • Han Zhang
    Pages 1-17

  3. The “City Operator” and the Tianyi Square Redevelopment Project

    • Han Zhang
    Pages 19-61

  4. Ningbo’s Historic North Bank

    • Han Zhang
    Pages 63-88

  5. The Redevelopment of the Laowaitan

    • Han Zhang
    Pages 89-142

  6. The New Urban Spaces of the Laowaitan

    • Han Zhang
    Pages 143-164

  7. The Flawed Governance of the Laowaitan and the Coping Strategies

    • Han Zhang
    Pages 165-208

  8. Conclusion and Discussion

    • Han Zhang
    Pages 209-221

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 223-238
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Keywords

About this book

In this book, the author seeks to understand China’s urban redevelopment from the theoretical perspective of the local entrepreneurial state. China’s rapid socio-economic transformations since 1978 have been in large part attributed to China’s state transformations. The author closely investigates Ningbo’s two downtown redevelopment projects by conducting ethnographic fieldwork and documentary research. It is found that the local entrepreneurial state deploys local state enterprises to undertake strategic urban redevelopment projects, organizes high-profile city/district marketing campaigns in entrepreneurial manners, and develops corporatist intermediations with local business owners for collaborative urban governance. Yet the local entrepreneurial state is multi-layered, with the municipal and district authorities sometimes disagreeing, conflicting, and bargaining with each other. Meanwhile, the relationship between spaces and their users, as well as that between various space users,constantly changes. All these players and their interactions constitute “spatial politics”, or the story of conflicts, struggles, negotiations, and collaborations in urban governance.  This work, based on six months of fieldwork, will appeal to scholars in the social sciences and experts in Asian Studies.

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of International Business & Economics, Beijing, China

    Han Zhang

About the author

Zhang Han is Lecturer in the School of International Relations at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, China. He obtained his PhD in Sociology from the University of Hong Kong in 2012. His research interests revolve around urban studies and political sociology.

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