China City Planning Review (No.4, 2019)

♦Collective Forms and Collective Spaces: A Discussion of Urban Design Thinking and Practice Based on Research in Chinese Cities 

Author: Sam Jacoby

Abstract: The paper examines how social projects, social spaces, and social realities define three contexts and shifts critical to understanding urban design in China, which are the transformations from collective forms to community building, from government to governance, and from urban versus rural development to urban-rural integration. The argument presented is that a unique unification of administration, production, and reproduction spaces into one institution, produced collective forms in China, whose collective spaces and collective subjectivities contrast with Western-centric explanations of urban design and urban sociology that depend on abstract notions of the public, public space, community, and place making. Instead, collective forms and collective spaces are defined by concrete activities, interests, and benefits that provide social networks of support and care to clearly identifiable constituencies. The collective and the community in China are thus always legibly spatialized and develop in parallel to a socialized model of governance that derives from a “differential mode of association.” This creates a spatialized governmentality, an instrumentalization of spatial design by government that brings spatial and social problems of governance closely together. A brief discussion of the historical formations of these changing contexts is the basis to outlining an interdisciplinary urban design approach that deals with spatial and social environments, practices, and policies. The paper brings together research conducted in Chinese cities including Wuhan, Beijing, and Shanghai.

Keywords: collective forms; collective spaces; people’s commune; danwei; xiaoqu; urban design; spatialized governmentality

♦Influences of Planning Policies on Community Shaping in China: From Past to Present

Author: Liu Jian

Abstract: In China, as in other countries of the world, communities, which are often considered as self-governing social organizations, are shaped and influenced by many factors. Different from other studies, this paper approaches the issue of community shaping from a planning perspective and tries to answer the questions of how Chinese communities have been physically shaped throughout history and what influences the planning policies have on communities’ scales, forms, and functions. Hereby, the planning policies concern not only the spatial organization, but also the social management of communities. The research is elaborated chronologically, dividing the history of community development in China roughly into four periods according to socio-economic development trends, planning objectives, and community characters. The narration is mainly based on literature work and case studies, with a focus on the social and spatial characters of urban communities. The paper concludes that before the modernization of China, Chinese communities were mainly shaped into a gated Li-Fang pattern by traditional city building principles, in accordance with the regulations on social management, in spite of the terminological changes in different dynasties and the opening of gated communities during certain dynasties. In the thirty years of the planned economy, Chinese communities were mainly shaped into inward Danwei (or work unit) communities of perimeter blocks by the urban planning institution, which was regarded as a technical tool of the planned socio-economic development to support national industrialization. In the next thirty years of economic transition, Chinese communities were further shaped into gated commodity housing communities of super blocks under the influence of reforms and the guidance of urban planning regulations. In the period of new urbanization, Chinese communities face the challenge of transforming towards a dense grid, with narrow streets and small blocks, and promoting public engagement in community building, in view of the requirements for quality-oriented development.

Keywords: community shaping; planning policy; social management; spatial organization; Chinese cities

♦From Redevelopment to In Situ Upgrading: Transforming Urban Village Governance in Shenzhen Through the Lens of Informality

Author: Gan Xinyue, Chen Yulin, Bian Lanchun

Abstract: The study on informality has experienced a shift from describing the spatial characteristics toward exploring the connotation of urban governance in recent years. This paper takes urban villages in Shenzhen, a typical informal settlement in China, as cases to analyze the two urban village governance modes of redevelopment and in situ upgrading and reveals the dynamics of the governance mode transformation. Through the lens of informality, this study focuses on the interaction among the government, the market, and former property owners on tenure legalization. The study finds that first of all, informality is the core of the transformation of urban village governance in Shenzhen. By strategically making use of informality, the government adopted different modes of urban village governance to fulfill the demands of urban development at different phases. Second, in the process of formalizing informal settlements through redevelopment, although the institutional framework is relatively complete, the boundary between informality and formality still changes continuously in property titling. While in the new governance mode of in situ upgrading in recent years, the government creates “special areas” in informal settlements via approving their de facto tenure security, so as to attract market force to upgrade physical environment and social management. Through revealing the mechanism in the blurred area between informality and formality, this paper responds to the dualistic argument on the informality theory, deepens the idea of taking informality as a flexible urban governance strategy in developing countries, and provides new thoughts for governance of informal settlements in China and other developing countries.

Keywords: informal settlement; informality; urban village; Shenzhen; governance

♦Promoting Functional Upgrading Through Spatial Renovation: An Exploration on the Design Methods of Old Community Renewal

Author: Zhang Miao, Tang Kangshuo

Abstract: As urban renewal shifts to more routine community renewal, the design methods of community renewal are faced with new challenges. Considering the existing dilemma faced by old communities and based on the practice of community renewal of different scales in recent years, this paper proposes that the design for community renewal should consider not only the spatial structure of communities at the macro level, but also the needs of daily life at the micro level. It can help efficiently transform the existing space into public space that encourages residents’ participation and promote community vitality, to achieve a humanistic value beyond the physical environment.

Keywords: old community; community public space; community renewal; community space design

♦A Comparative Study on Participatory Micro-Regeneration of Old Communities: From the Perspective of Social Capital

Author: Tang Yan, Zhang Lu, Li Jing

Abstract: Along with the rise of democratic consciousness and the slowdown of urbanization and economic growth speed, the community development path in contemporary China is under transition, aiming at a more bottom-up and small-scale planning and design process. In order to reveal how the “social capital” affects the public participation and social governance in the process of community micro-regeneration in China, this paper takes two old communities in Chaoyang District of Beijing as examples, to compare the impacts of various social capital levels on participatory community planning and design. The study proves the significance of community social capital and community self-government for the success of residents’ participation and community regeneration, as well as providing suggestions on how to improve public participation effects by strengthening social capital of communities.

Keywords: social capital; micro-regeneration; old community; community governance

♦Social Integration of the “Lao-Piao-Zu” in Beijing: A Case Study on the Huilongguan Area

Author: Yang Xue, Qian Yun

Abstract: Following the rapid urbanization in China, in recent years a great number of young laborers have migrated and settled down in large cities like Beijing. Subsequently, many of their parents then moved to these large cities to live with them and take care of them and their children, which has gradually formed a specific social group: “Lao-Piao-Zu.” Recently, social integration of the “Lao-Piao-Zu” has drawn the attention of many scholars, but there still is a lack of detailed analysis based on surveys. This paper aims to set up a comprehensive evaluation system to measure the extent of social integration of the “Lao-Piao-Zu,” through three dimensions including culture, social relations, and psychology. Nearly 200 questionnaires were collected from three communities in the Huilongguan area in Beijing in the summer of 2015. By multiple linear regression, it reveals that the weakness of social relations and psychological concerns are main barriers to the social integration of “Lao-Piao-Zu,” and the support from social organizations is crucial for that. The findings try to provide valuable suggestions to improve the social well-beings of the increasing “Lao-Piao-Zu” in the future.

Keywords: “Lao-Piao-Zu”; social integration; influencing factors; Huilongguan area

♦Chinese City Size Ranking: A Comparative Study of the Urban Built-Up Area Based on Remote Sensing Data

Author: Huang Jingnan, Xu Mengxiao, Liu Yong, Jefferey Sellers

Abstract: Without a clear and unified definition of the urban built-up area, many city rankings by area are inconsistent, giving rise to confusion among the general public and even scholars. This paper summarizes various definitions of the urban built-up area and proposes three definition methods: all urban built-up areas in a municipal administrative area, concentrated contiguous built-up areas, and urban built-up areas in central cities. From the latest Landsat 8 satellite images, the paper obtains the data of urban built-up area in some of China’s big cities and makes a comparative study between the results of the urban built-up areas by the three definition methods and three other common statistical data. It finds that neither the area data nor the ranking is consistent. Finally, it further explores what causes differences in rankings and gives some advice for improving the definition of the urban built-up area.

Keywords: city size ranking; urban built-up area; remoting sensing