Investigating integrated urbanism in Chinese edge cities: the case of Yizhuang Development Area

Purpose China’s capital Beijing is a special case of fast urbanization and monocentric development, resulting in major efforts to implement polycentric structures. The purpose of this paper is thus centered on understanding the phenomenon of an established edge city and the level of integration regarding all daily activities of its residents. Design/methodology/approach Since the end of the 20th century, Chinese cities have been witnessing rapid urban growth and expansion. One of the major planning challenges has been the implementation of polycentric urban structures to enforce integrated urbanism and thus less dependency on commuting to few main commercial and business centers. The methodological approach includes various mapping efforts and field studies to investigate the currently produced urban landscape and highlight the rather challenging reality of edge cities being produced in a very short period of time. Findings This paper explores one of Beijing’s biggest edge cities, known as the Yizhuang Development Area, which was created by an investment initiative of the municipal government. The city has been developed with a strong focus on functional planning aspects rather than a dynamic diversification of walkable districts with emerging identities. Originality/value This investigation attempts to add some new insights into the contemporary urbanism in Chinese edge cities and the general problem of missing urban design initiatives to enhance the overall urban quality of diversity and social interaction.

Competitiveness and Polycentrism for SMEs in Bogotá Region, Colombia

This chapter studies the dynamics of Bogotá Region based on the New Economic Geography and the recent works on economic development in two big dimensions: the economic and the spatial structure; that is, productivity and polycentrism. The central thesis, supported on an econometric exercise for SMEs in 20 cities in Bogotá-Sabana region, is that with greater strength in the interior of Bogotá and less in the city region, a transition from monocentrism to functional polycentrism is consolidating. Krugman's Edge Cities model concludes that polycentrism comes from a process of spontaneous self-organization and produces a territorial order according to the mysterious ZIP law and consistent with efficiency, equity, and sustainability.

“Suburban Warriors”: The Blue-Collar and Blue-Sky Communities of Southern California’s Aerospace Industry

Los Angeles’s aerospace suburbs no longer have many aerospace companies or workers in them, but their legacy—a geographical division of labor, class, and race reflected in and reinforced by corporate planning—continues to shape the region’s suburban landscape. In the early 1960s, aerospace companies relocated their new divisions to the emerging edge cities of greater Los Angeles. Until the end of the Cold War, these “blue-sky” suburbs—white, white-collar, and with predominantly male workforces—reinterpreted the California dream for an upper-middle class who believed they had little in common with their blue-collar counterparts left behind in older working-class communities.