Land Requisitions and State–Village Power Restructuring in Southern China

AbstractLand requisitions for urban development have led to a rapid growth of wealthy, autonomous villages in southern China. However, the underlying causes of this emerging phenomenon and its impact on local governance have been largely unexplored by the existing literature. Through an in-depth analysis of the contestations and negotiations between the local state and villagers when dealing with the various problems arising from land compensation, this study explains how and why land requisitions strengthened the collective power of villagers in defending their rightful interests. This bolstered power has in turn forced the local state constantly to adjust its tactics when addressing the needs of villagers in order to avoid widespread conflicts and potential social unrest. The findings provide new insights into the complexities of land conflicts and their actual impact on state–village power restructuring in southern China.

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The Evolution of City-as-a-Platform: Smart Urban Development Governance with Collective Knowledge-Based Platform Urbanism

Land ◽

10.3390/land10010033 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 33

Author(s):

Palmyra Repette ◽

Jamile Sabatini-Marques ◽

Tan Yigitcanlar ◽

Denilson Sell ◽

Eduardo Costa

Keyword(s):

Urban Development ◽

Social Economic ◽

Local Governance ◽

Open Data ◽

Journal Articles ◽

Collective Knowledge ◽

Digital Revolution ◽

Knowledge Based ◽

The Government ◽

The City

Since the advent of the second digital revolution, the exponential advancement of technology is shaping a world with new social, economic, political, technological, and legal circumstances. The consequential disruptions force governments and societies to seek ways for their cities to become more humane, ethical, inclusive, intelligent, and sustainable. In recent years, the concept of City-as-a-Platform was coined with the hope of providing an innovative approach for addressing the aforementioned disruptions. Today, this concept is rapidly gaining popularity, as more and more platform thinking applications become available to the city context—so-called platform urbanism. These platforms used for identifying and addressing various urbanization problems with the assistance of open data, participatory innovation opportunity, and collective knowledge. With these developments in mind, this study aims to tackle the question of “How can platform urbanism support local governance efforts in the development of smarter cities?” Through an integrative review of journal articles published during the last decade, the evolution of City-as-a-Platform was analyzed. The findings revealed the prospects and constraints for the realization of transformative and disruptive impacts on the government and society through the platform urbanism, along with disclosing the opportunities and challenges for smarter urban development governance with collective knowledge through platform urbanism.

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The Rise of the Chinese Security State

The China Quarterly ◽

10.1017/s0305741015000430 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 222 ◽

pp. 339-359 ◽

Cited By ~ 60

Author(s):

Yuhua Wang ◽

Carl Minzner

Keyword(s):

Local Governance ◽

Public Security ◽

Policy Response ◽

Political Systems ◽

New Governance ◽

Evaluation Standards ◽

Social Unrest ◽

The Past ◽

Domestic Security ◽

Governance Models

AbstractOver the past two decades, the Chinese domestic security apparatus has expanded dramatically. “Stability maintenance” operations have become a top priority for local Chinese authorities. We argue that this trend goes back to the early 1990s, when central Party authorities adopted new governance models that differed dramatically from those of the 1980s. They increased the bureaucratic rank of public security chiefs within the Party apparatus, expanded the reach of the Party political-legal apparatus into a broader range of governance issues, and altered cadre evaluation standards to increase the sensitivity of local authorities to social unrest. We show that the origin of these changes lies in a policy response to the developments of 1989–1991, namely the Tiananmen democracy movement and the collapse of communist political systems in Eastern Europe. Over the past twenty years, these practices have developed into an extensive stability maintenance apparatus, whereby local governance is increasingly oriented around the need to respond to social unrest, whether through concession or repression. Chinese authorities now appear to be rethinking these developments, but the direction of reform remains unclear.

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Global Cities versus Rustbelt Realities: The Dilemmas of Urban Development in Russia

Slavic Review ◽

10.1017/slr.2020.88 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 79 (2) ◽

pp. 365-389

Author(s):

Stephen Crowley

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Urban Development ◽

Economic Conditions ◽

Urban Centers ◽

Social Unrest ◽

Single Industry ◽

Government Planning ◽

The Government ◽

Developed World ◽

Vast Territory

Following the argument of urban geographers that “superstar” cities are the engines of economic growth in a globalized era, Kremlin advisor Aleksei Kudrin and others have argued that Russia should invest in a handful of major cities including Moscow and St. Petersburg. That advice has now become part of official government planning. In stark contrast to the developed world, however, Russia's population is not concentrated in a few urban centers, but in several hundred medium-sized cities and towns, many distributed across Russia's vast territory, often far from other metropolitan agglomerations. These include more than a hundred officially-designated “monotowns,” whose fate is dependent on a single industry, which the government ranks according to the severity of their “socio-economic conditions.” This paper will explore the dilemmas faced by monotowns in particular, and the challenge to authorities of balancing the need for new economic growth from urban metropolises against preventing social unrest in declining industrial communities.

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Effects of Urban Development Praxis on Economic Inequality in Latin American Cities

Urban Science ◽

10.3390/urbansci3030088 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

pp. 88

Author(s):

Gustavo Alberto Cadenas Delascio ◽

Luis E. Hernández-Ponce ◽

Gerardo L. Febres

Keyword(s):

Urban Development ◽

Latin American ◽

Community Organization ◽

Local Governance ◽

Economic Inequality ◽

Multiple Linear Regression Model ◽

Developing Regions ◽

Common Goals ◽

Statistical Relationships ◽

American Cities

In a highly and rapidly urbanized world, the effect of the action of urban development is determinant for the physical, social, and economic conditions of its citizens, among which is inequality. It is even more crucial for developing regions such as Latin America on which this research is conducted. Therefore, the focus of the investigation was to determine the existence of significant statistical relationships between urban development and economic inequality in the region. For this purpose, it was sought to define urban development from the perspective of the praxis of multilateral organizations measured by indicators of extensive use among them. A hierarchical multiple linear regression model was built with six urban development variables predictors of the Gini coefficient as an indicator of economic inequality, in which data of 49 Latin American cities was used. The application of the method allowed us to discover a stochastic behavior of interaction between those multidimensional systems and confirmed the statistical relation. The research allows having a tool for the formulation of public policies that seek to strengthen local governance, promote community organization and participation, and assert urban planning as an agent for concerted efforts to achieve common goals.

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Civic pride and redevelopment in the post-war British city

Urban History ◽

10.1017/s0963926812000077 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 39 (2) ◽

pp. 310-328 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

PETER SHAPELY

Keyword(s):

Urban Development ◽

Local Governance ◽

Development Projects ◽

Local Authorities ◽

Symbolic Form ◽

Civic Pride ◽

Development Plans ◽

Post War

ABSTRACT:This article is concerned with civic pride in post-war urban Britain. While many of the development projects during 1945–79 proved to be design failures, suggesting the demise of civic pride, the ambitions of local authorities, planners and developers have largely been ignored or dismissed. Nevertheless, the development plans which emerged during this period reveal a desire to rebuild new, modern and vibrant cities. Moreover, the planning and financing of these new projects highlights the structure of local governance in post-war Britain, with a shift towards new partnerships consisting of the council, the technocrat and the developer. As such, civic pride continued to be evident in the post-war period, both as an aspiration for urban development and as a symbolic form of power.

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Railway and urban development in Patras: Towards the improved participation of local governance in complex planning problems

SAJ - Serbian Architectural Journal ◽

10.5937/saj1503365p ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 365-380

Author(s):

Theodora Papamichail

Keyword(s):

Urban Development ◽

Planning Process ◽

Local Governance ◽

Infrastructure Development ◽

Test Planning ◽

Local Actors ◽

Railway System ◽

Planning Problems ◽

Complex Planning

In recent years, the topic of integrated infrastructure and urban development requires the bottom-up approach in addition to the formal planning policies. This is specifically true for complex institutional frameworks, which need the enforcement of the interested public. Due to the socio-economic crisis in Greece, infrastructure networks have already been dramatically influenced by the fragmented decision-making among the different planning levels and actors. The case study presented in the paper relates to the improvement of a railway system in Patras, Greece (in narrow terms), but, in broader terms, the case study elucidates the informal planning procedure (called the Test Planning process) behind the railway improvement as such. The idea of using such a procedure in Patras emerged due to the different interests of various actors concerning the railway integration into the urban fabric in last two decades. However, it seems there is an absence of an effective cooperation between the initiators of this procedure and the local authorities. Research methodology is developed in several steps. Firstly, the broader problem and the potential of infrastructure development will be presented. Secondly, the Test Planning process will be presented shortly. In the end, the importance of local government in such a collaborative procedure will be mentioned and the case of local actors in Patras in the different phases of the Test Planning process will be under a critical scope towards the existing situation and the benefits in future steps.

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Policy Framework for Education Development in Nepal

International Education Studies ◽

10.5539/ies.v13n1p89 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 89

Author(s):

Pramila Neupane

Keyword(s):

Education Policy ◽

Local Governance ◽

Local Level ◽

Relevant Literature ◽

Policy Formulation ◽

Policy Framework ◽

Education Development ◽

Development Indicators ◽

Depth Analysis ◽

Diverse Society

This exploration of challenges and barriers to inclusion in Nepal elaborates a conceptual framework for education development in a diverse society. As Nepal is a highly diverse, caste-based, multi-ethnic, and multi-linguistic society with very low development indicators, the article focuses on barriers to education and related issues across different socioeconomic groups. A systematic review of the relevant literature forms the basis for the design of a practical approach to education development for this diverse society in light of education policy trends in Nepal since 1950. The five proposed steps for education policy formulation and implementation include an in-depth analysis of the existing situation and outcome assessments. The proposed approach will enable local governance institutions to design and implement pragmatic provisions for education development at local level in the context of a new constitution that mandates local government management of school education.

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Sustainable Urban Development

E-Planning and Collaboration ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-5646-6.ch002 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 30-40

Author(s):

Nicola Boccella ◽

Irene Salerno

Keyword(s):

Urban Development ◽

Urban Design ◽

Rapid Growth ◽

Development Planning ◽

Local Communities ◽

Sustainable Urban Development ◽

The World ◽

University Of Rome ◽

The City

The concept of participation in sustainable urban development practices is actually more and more popular in Europe and all over the world. In parallel, there is a rapid growth of urban design and planning projects including local communities in urban development planning activities. According to such concepts, this chapter, starting from the description of the results of field and desk researches carried out by ‘La Sapienza' University of Rome and related to communities involvement strategies currently available in Europe, describes and analyses a case study based on a concrete application of theoretical and methodological approaches, and two more cases of possible application of an integrated methodology. All the projects described concern the city of Rome.

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