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"Global city building in China and its discontents.“ (2011)
"Global city building in China and its
discontents.“ (2011)
Xuefei Ren
, Associate Professor of Sociology and Global Urban Studies at Michigan State University. Research interests: political economy of urban transformation in contemporary China. She focuses on urban planning, historical preservation, housing rights, cultural industries etc.
Books
:
Building Globalization
(2011) and
Urban China
(2013)
The building of global cities in China?
Building the visual image
: changes in the physical and built environment- signature buildings and creating a “
global city look
” via the construction of state-of-art infrastructure and flagship architecture projects.
Neighborhood renewals started in 1990s under the explanation of their houses being too old and dangerous. Note that many neighborhoods of this kind were not renewed because they were less promising in investment prospects
Dangerous, but profitable? The term dangerous was never clearly defined.
'Dangerous houses
' were one of the most important instrument of city governments to intervene on land and housing market.
Dangerous houses
In 1992 the Shanghai municipal government announced the 365 Plan> by the 2000 the city should finish demolishing 365 hectares of 'dangerous houses.' :red_flag:
HOWEVER
SHANGHAI IS ALSO AN EXAMPLE OF USING
PRESERVATION INSTEAD OF DEMOLITION
AS AN INSTRUMENT OF URBAN GROWTH.
Shanghai's Alleyway Houses
Xintiandi
- two blocks of
shikumen
houses were turned into a posh entertainment quarter by international developers and architects and with the support from local governments.
2 more items...
Displacement and the politics of compensation
: developers in general do not engage in any kind of negotiation with the local community. It is the district government who is responsible for resident relocation.
Incentives
: job offers, apartment units, retirement pensions, medical insurance for elderly etc.
Monetary compensation
Coercive strategy:
if a family had a member working in a public sector, the district government would put pressure on these public employees.
Resident strategies:
Since calculation of compensation is based on living area and not on number of family members it was impossible for these families who usually lived in crowded conditions, to buy a new apartment big enough to accommodate the whole family.
Building administrative and legal setting
: significant state role: providing means to regulate urban development under the paradigm of global cities.
STATE
: owns most of the land and for this reason global city development in China is centered around urban property. Architectural MEGA PROJECTS became core strategy in state project of building a global city.
New forms of bottom-up housing activism?
Why?
Non-electoral political system
Booming property market
More subtle tactics of resistance instead of street actions and direct confrontations
:star: 1.Registering an extra family member in order to built extensions to gain better compensation
:star: 2. Mobilize the media to bring the attention to their case
:star: 3. 'Rightful resistance'- framing their resistance in legal terms
:no_entry: Organized street protests are less successful as organizers must apply for authorisation from the government to stage a legal protest. Many organizers are jailed at this level.
Questions?
What do preservation policies tell us about history of the city and the relationship towards certain moments in history?
Can the example of Xintiandi be considered a genuine historical preservation ?
The context:
The "global city" concept became relevant for Chinese academic and policymakers in the mid 1990s.
Global cities were seen as a way for China to become more integrated into the world.
By the end of the 1990s, 43 Chinese cities announced their plans to become
global cities.
